Red Dawn
by Lina Ben
Summary: Penguins of Madagascar High School AU. With things getting crazier at school and at "The Zoo", Private seeks control. Little did he know, strange and unknown feelings were going blow things right out of the water. Now finished!
1. Chapter 1: Ignorance

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own "Ignorance" by Paramore.

Chapter 1: Ignorance

* * *

_The friends who stuck together  
We wrote our names in blood  
But I guess you can't accept that the change is good  
It's good  
It's good_

_~Ignorance by Paramore_

* * *

A heartbeat bled its way into the restless dreams of the small teenage boy as he squirmed and twitched. His eyes shot open and it only took a few minutes to remember where he was. He was on a plane coming back from Washington D.C and the plane was just about to proceed through its touchdown sequence. Some of the other passengers were already waking up, including the beautiful blonde woman next to him.

"Hello, Percy." The woman smiled at him, with a dazed smile. This was Nicole Tolhurst, his new Psychology teacher he had met on the flight. She was incredibly young and she had the bluest eyes you could ever see.

"Hello, Miss." The teenage boy greeted back in a thick English accent.

The teenage boy's name was Percy "Private" Swimmer but his friend's called him Private. Private is a young teen of 16 and is an agent in training. He is part of the Penguin Elite Force along with his friends. Private is the shortest in the team and he is rather small. He has short black hair with long bangs that cover his eyes when he is embarrassed. He has ice blue eyes, but at a distance everyone thinks they're hazel. At the moment Private is wearing a black leather jacket, a lose red tie, a band T-shirt, dark blue jeans and black converse shoes. Now, the plane was beginning its decent to New York City and Private was starting to feel queasy. After ten more excruciating minutes the plane landed and Private grabbed his bag and promptly left.

After Baggage Claims and Customs, Private finally walked through Arrivals with a tired expression. He glanced at the crowd and spotted his team mates waving to him. Dragging his luggage as quick as he could, he ran towards his friends and was tackled into a hug by Rico. Ricky "Rico" Knight was the second tallest of the team and had messy black hair that was styled into a Mohawk and small green eyes. The last two members of the team chuckled and Rico hugged Private.

"It's good to see you again, Private. I hope Perry wasn't too hard on you." Came the voice of Seth "Skipper" Sarge.

Seth was the second shortest of the group and he had dark sapphire eyes and short black hair with bangs that framed his face. He was also the leader of the group. After Rico got off Private, Private stood up and went to hug his leader. A few minutes into the embrace there was a short coughing sound. It came from Kalen "Kowalski" Berg that tallest of the group who had brown eyes and short black slicked back hair. Breaking away from Skipper, Private went to hug Kowalski. To the left of them a clock struck 9:00 pm.

After a while everyone walked out of the airport and got into the car to drive home. They were headed back to their apartment, The Zoolander Heights. The Zoolander Heights was where many kids from their school lived. Basically it is a scholarship thing they do at their school. The school Zoolander Heights High School bought an apartment block a few years back, but they didn't know what to do with it. So 3 years ago the school started up this project to see that if teens could live without supervision of their parents or guardians. The school referred to this as "The Experiment" but the teens referred to this as "The Zoo". There was also the crazy kooky Doorman, known as Alice. Some kids would only stay here a semester but Private and his friends have stayed here since they were freshmen. The living arrangements, food and bills were all paid for them, but the kids usually took up part-time work on the side to pay for anything extra.

When everyone arrived at the apartment they took the elevator to the first floor and walked to their apartment, 1A. Their apartment was big and comforting. It had a big area that served as a living room, kitchen and study. The living room was near the door, the kitchen was at the back with a balcony and the study was to the right side of the room. On the right side there was a bathroom and a door which lead to Rico and Kowalski's shared room and on the left side there was another bathroom and Private and Skipper's shared room. Rico and Kowalski walked to their room, chatting about a bet. Skipper then flopped down onto the couch and pulled Private to the couch too. They talked about the camp that Private had been on for the past two weeks. They talked about Perry, the instructor and already Special Agent for the Elite Force and what he was like. Perry was also Private's older brother and was four years older then him. Private's friends were also 16, but he was nearly always seen as the youngest even though Skipper was 2 months younger than him. Private glared at the TV as if he was going to attack it any second. He didn't want to remember what had made him so mad but the scenes kept on flashing before his eyes.

"So, did you enjoy the camp?" Skipper asked suddenly turning his gaze back to Private. Something was up with his soilder, and Skipper wanted to know what.

"It was fine, sir." Private said rather sharply, attempting to avoid the subject as his eyes narrowed into a glare remembering the terrible thing that had happened on the camp.

"I know when you're lying to me, Private." Skipper growled non-threateningly, glaring back to his friend.

Private mumbled something incoherent, and Skipper sighed again. Outside, it was dark and the stars light up the sky like tiny little candles. It was about 10:00 pm now. Ending the conversation, Private turned on the TV and watched for a while.

Half and hour of watching TV later, Private excused himself to his room humming that familiar tune from his ipod. It was unusually quiet; Kingsley Julien wasn't having his nightly dance party so the apartment building was unnaturally quiet. Skipper was happy he was finally going to get a good night's sleep for the last day of the summer holiday's tomorrow. Slowly Skipper got up and walked to his and Private's room. When he got there he saw that Private was already asleep, so he changed as quietly as he could into his pyjamas.

"No, don't…please…you can't…Perry!" Private whimpered from his bed. Quickly Skipper looked over and saw that Private was still dreaming. Gently, Skipper placed a hand on his friend's forehead and brushed some of the longer bangs of hair out of Private's face. After making sure Private was tucked in, Skipper walked to his own bed and curled up and also went to sleep.

**Next time on Red Dawn…**

"Hello Neighbours!" the voice shattered the silence around Private and his friends as they had breakfast. _'Oh crap.'_ Private groaned to himself and stared at the source of the annoyingly accented voice. There stood an olive skinned teen with glossy grey hair that probably had many hair products in it. The teen was already wearing his school uniform even though the start of the school year wasn't until tomorrow. Then a shrill giggle sounded, causing Skipper to choke on his morning coffee.

* * *

_The same tricks that once fooled me  
They won't get you anywhere  
I'm not the same kid from your memory  
Now I can fend for myself_

_~Ignorance by Paramore_

* * *

Thank you for reading! This is my first Penguins of Madagascar story and I hope you all like it. So should I continue this? Please review and tell me what you think!

Did any of you see the Phineas and Ferb reference? Perry the Platypus from the series, in my story works for the Elite Force and is also Private's older brother. So, yeah, I don't own Perry the Platypus either.

From,

Lina Ben


	2. Chapter 2: The Takeover, The Breaks Over

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does.

I don't own "The Takeover, The Breaks Over" by Fall Out Boy.

Chapter 2: The Takeover, The Breaks Over

* * *

_Wouldn't you rather be a widow than a divorcee?  
Style your wake for fashion magazines.  
Widow or a divorcee?  
Don't pretend, d-d-d-don't pretend._

_~ The Takeover, The Breaks Over by Fall Out Boy_

* * *

The sun had barely risen when Skipper was roused from his sleep by loud dance music. Groaning in annoyance, the leader turned over and put his pillow over his ears hoping to block out the noise. There was a brief shuffle of sheets, and when Skipper peered out to Private's bed he saw that the smaller teen had woken up. Skipper growled and got up, getting changed into a black long sleeve t-shirt, white t-shirt, jeans, black converse shoes and black sunglasses. Private had also gotten dressed in a black t-shirt, a loose red tie, jeans and black converse. They both walked to the kitchen together and sat down at the breakfast table. Kowalski was making breakfast for them today. Cheerily, the taller teen handed Private a short stack of pancakes with pineapple juice and an apple and set bacon and eggs, toast and coffee in front of Skipper. Rico was already inhaling what looked like toast with scrambled eggs and Kowalski had apple pieces, orange juice and a raisins box. There was silence until the door opened and three teenage boys walked in.

"Hello Neighbours!" An oh-so-familiar shattered the comfortable silence around Private and his friends as they ate breakfast. _'Oh crap.' _Private thought groaned to himself and stared at the source of the annoyingly accented voice. There stood an olive skinned teen with glossy grey hair that probably had many hair products in it. The teen was already wearing his school uniform even though the school year wasn't going to start until tomorrow. The teen also had brown eyes. Then a shrill giggle sounded, causing Skipper to choke on his morning coffee.

"Royal Pain, get out of here!" Skipper stood up after his brief couching fit and growled lowly at the uninvited guests. "Royal Pain" as dubbed by Skipper, is the teams neighbour and pain in the butt. His name is Kingsley Julien Tropic, but he prefers to be called King Julien. He is also the same age as the team. To the right of him was where the shrill giggle came from. It was a short 13 year old boy with short slightly curly brown-ginger hair and big brown eyes. The small teen was wearing a white button up shirt and jeans. His name is Mort Gilligan Tropic he is King Julien's cousin. To the left of the "Royal Pain" was a 17 year old with dark grey hair and bored light brown eyes. This was Maurice Coco Richards, a friend of the team. These three usually barged in unannounced, but there was a reason why the "Lemurs" as dubbed by Skipper were here.

"My loyal subjects, I am here to invite you to the most awesome party to rock "The Zoo". And you are all invited!" The self-proclaimed king yelled excitedly as the team stared in shock. They were never invited to any of King Julien's parties, so this was definitely a shock to them.

After saying yes to the party invite, Skipper decided to take the team shopping to buy party clothes. As Rico drove through the streets of New York, Private thought about random things as the music changed to something upbeat and fun. Kowalski was scribbling in his notebook in the front seat and Skipper was humming the music's tune and glancing out the window. When the team arrived at the Mall, Skipper dragged the team to random shops making Rico and Kowalski try on different clothes while he and Private waited outside the changing rooms. When Kowalski walked out of the changing room he was wearing and black t-shirt underneath a light blue button up shirt with dark blue jeans. Skipper's dark sapphire blue eyes roamed and examined Kowalski's attire before giving shaky thumbs up. Private's eyes narrowed as he glanced at his leader.

_'Now that's strange…"_ Private thought as Rico walked out next. Rico was dressed in a black skin tight t-shirt, jeans and black sunglasses that hung of the tip of his nose. Private's cheeks reddened with warmth as he quickly glanced down.

_'Rico looks awesome.' _Private thought enviously and he was quickly shoved into the changing room by Skipper.

_'Oh well, better get this over with.' _Private rolled his eyes as he started to try on clothes. Private quickly changed into a very nice outfit of jeans, a white skin tight t-shirt, a pair of black sunglasses and a black leather jacket. Walking back out to let his friends see, Skipper grinned at him.

"Looking good, Private." He said with an almost smug smirk. Private blushed, Skipper had picked this outfit for him. Kowalski smiled slightly and Rico rolled his small green eyes.

After getting something to eat at the food court the team spotted their across the hall neighbour Marlene and her younger sister Rachel. The two sisters both had long brown hair had the same body frame, while Marlene had light blue eyes her sister had stormy grey eyes. Rachel was 13 years old and Marlene was the same age as the boys. Marlene was wearing her usual attire of a brown cardigan, white t-shirt and blue flats and jeans. Rachel was wearing a blue t-shirt with a butterfly print, jeans, purple flats and a denim vest. The girls were both sitting at a table together, reading books from the Twilight Series. Rachel was reading Twilight while her sister was reading New Moon. Private had indeed read the entire series with Kowalski and Skipper, but when Rico tried to read it he nearly threw up on the book. Skipper said what Rico had was "Mushy love sensitivity" and that it couldn't be cured. The four teens walked towards to two girls stealthily and hid behind them waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Boo!" The four teenage boys yelled at the same time, jumping up from behind to two girls and scaring them half to death. The two sisters jumped and screamed, before glancing behind them to find four teenage boys laughing hysterically.

"What the hell was that for?" Marlene yelled as the four teens continued laughing. Regaining his composure somewhat, Skipper chuckled.

"You were in a place of weakness so in turn we had a chance to strike." Skipper said smugly, as Rico gave a wide smile.

"Never let your guard down, Marlene." Private said, Skipper nodding happily.

"So did you two get invites to Julien's party tonight?" Kowalski asked the two sisters, his brown eyes gazing at the two girls.

"Did you?" Rico rasped, his question taking the other three by surprise. Rico hadn't really talked in so long, so this was definitely an improvement. Rico lost usage of his voice when he was 13 years old, when he and the team were testing a new kind of explosive. Skipper blamed himself for what had happened, but really it was everybody's fault. Over the years Rico has found he can talk again, but only in a few words at a time.

"Of course we're going. Julien invited everyone in the building." Marlene answered with a cheeky smile and a blush. It was common knowledge that Marlene had a crush on Skipper, except for the oblivious Skipper himself. He had no idea that she liked him, even though the two were pretty close.

"So, we'll see you at the party?" Private asked the two sisters.

"Yeah, we'll be annoying Julien." Marlene answered with a grin. The team then said goodbye and left the mall. As they got in the car, Private noticed that the song from before was playing again as if the song was telling him something.

It was just after sunset when the boys got into their party clothes that they bought earlier that day and left their apartment. They got into the lift and waited quietly as it took them down to the basement where the party was being held. Quickly heading out of the lift when it stopped, the boys thrust themselves into the unknown. The party had a typical party atmosphere of music, dancing, eating and drinking non-alcoholic drinks. Nearby, the four teens spotted their friends Rodger and Max, who were chatting with Doris Fisher and her younger sister Ariel. Rodger Night Crocer lived on the same floor as the team with Doris and Ariel and Max Cole Katt lived on the floor above them with Samantha and Hailey Simms. Kowalski blushed as he saw Doris, who was wearing a blue dress with leggings, a dolphin necklace and black flats. It was common knowledge within the team that Kowalski had a crush on Doris and whenever he talked about her Skipper would always whack him upside the head and call him an idiot for having a crush, and if it wasn't Skipper who told him Rico would glare angrily at the intellectual and whack him upside the head anyway. It was almost as if Rico was jealous of Kowalski for having the crush. As Private thought about it more and more he was actually starting to see something more dormant within the mute teen.

_'Maybe Rico is jealous of Kowalski, because he likes Kowalski. Wait, what am I thinking? I'm a total idiot.' _Private thought as the music faded and changed into a deep hypnotic song.

Songs later the party was starting to pick up and get more exciting. Even later the team was called into a circle and they all started playing 7 Minutes in Heaven.

"Apparently this game starts with the spinning of a bottle and then whoever the bottle lands on you have to take them to the closet and well…kiss them." Kowalski rambled nervously to Skipper as the leader glared at the bottle. Let's just say if looks could kill, that bottle would have been smashed into a million pieces and turned into sand.

"Okay, tall person it is your turn to do the spiny bottle." Julien said in his thick Madagascar accent and pointed to Kowalski. Kowalski gulped and blinked and gulped again as he took the bottle placed in on the ground and twisted it, making the bottle spin. After a few second the spinning bottle was beginning to lose momentum and finally coming to a stop in front of a gaping Rico. Private sent a worried glance towards Skipper, but Skipper had a dazed look of his face his eyes glassy and unfocused. Rico got up, and walked very slowly to Kowalski. The mere moments felt like hours to Private and Skipper and Rico took every step. When Rico was in front of Kowalski they both gripped each other's hands and disappeared into the closet.

The whole seven minutes felt like days to both Skipper and Private as they gazed at the locked closet, unable to look away. Then Kowalski and Rico walked out of the closet, Rico's eyes bright and tired while Kowalski glared at the ground. Skipper lets confusion and anger washes though his body as the two at down far away from the group.

"What is with the sad faces? Okay smaller person, it is being your turn." The glossy grey haired teen said with a cheeky grin and a wink. Private snatched the bottle out of Julien's hands in one fluid motion and set the bottle on the ground, twisting it and letting go, the bottle spinning rapidly. After a few moments the bottle came to a stop, pointing directly at Skipper. Quickly the leader got up and ran across the room, taking Private's hand and shoving them both in the closet. The closet itself had dim lighting, but a steady light came from a small light bulb a few metres over Skipper's head. In the light, Private could see the reddened cheeks of his leader and the glazed dark sapphire eyes.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry Private. I'm so very sorry." The usually calm and in control leader said with great shudders. Private glanced up to his leader and then he knew. Skipper was going to cry. Skipper hadn't cried since Rico lost his voice, but he sure as hell was crying now. As low sobs made his body shiver and shudder, Private wrapped his arms around Skipper's lean body and held his leader as he sobbed. Private knew why he was crying, it wasn't hard to guess. Skipper was finally crying over his ex-girlfriend, Lola Andrews, a transfer student from the small island of Hawaii. They had broken up months ago and it was very hard on the team. Skipper would often murmur her name in his dreams. Gently, Skipper embraced Private back and pressed a soft kiss on the smaller teen's forehead.

'_Skipper kissed me. Skipper kissed me. What the hell do I do?' _Private thought worriedly as the two of them walked out of the closet. Grabbing Kowalski and Rico the team left basement and walked up the stairs in silence. They couldn't use the lift because Alice always closed the lift after 10:00 pm. Finally arriving back at their apartment Skipper sat down on the couch and the other three sat with him.

"No-one ever speaks of this again, got me?" Skipper growled as the other three nodded quickly, not wanting to upset their leader further. After taking showers and getting dressed into their pyjamas, the team smiled at each other tenderly and then walked to their respective rooms. When Skipper finally fell asleep, he dreamed of his team and his life as if they were woven together like a spider web.

* * *

_We do it in the dark with smiles on our faces.  
We're dropped and well concealed in secret places, woah.  
We do it in the dark with smiles on our faces.  
We're dropped and well concealed in secret places._

~_ The Takeover, The Breaks Over by Fall Out Boy_

* * *

Thank you for reading chapter 2, my dear friends. Did anyone see the references to the show? I kinda gave Twilight and honourable mention because my friend loves the Twilight series. Please review and tell me what you think!

Samantha is a made up name for the female slasher and the series, just so you know.

From,

Lina Ben


	3. Chapter 3: New Divide

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does. I also don't own "New Moon".

I don't own "New Divide" by Linkin Park.

Chapter 3: New Divide

* * *

_I remembered black skies / the lightning all around me_

_I remembered each flash / as time began to blur_

_Like a startling sign / that fate had finally found me_

_And your voice was all I heard_

_That I'd get what I deserve_

_~New Divide by Linkin Park_

* * *

It was 6030 hours that the alarm sounded, Skipper launching from his bed, up into the air and landing gracefully on the ground near Private's bed.

"Up and at 'em, solider! We have school today!" Skipper yelled excitedly, shaking Private awake. Private's eyes flickered open and he found himself face to face with his energetic leader.

"Urgh, I'm up already." Private said irritably and then yawned hugely.

It was school today, and the start of a new semester at Zoolander Heights High. It was finally September the first and Skipper was excited about it, well not really. Skipper just wanted an excuse to shake his team awake. Skipper kinda liked school, he preferred the teachers mostly and sitting with his team and friends at lunch. Kowalski however, was in laymen's terms "a total nerd". Kowalski's top classes were Maths and Integrated Science, but he hated English with a passion. Rico liked Psychology and Maths for who knows what reasons. Private loved English, Psychology, Maths and Integrated Science.

Quickly getting changed into his school uniform, Private quickly checked himself in his mirror. The uniform consisted of a white button up t-shirt, black tie, black school blazer, black cargo shorts in the summer or black pants. Skipper was putting on his shoes by the time Private fumbled with his tie.

"Uh, Skippah?" Private called to his leader, who glanced at him and walked over to help put on Private's tie.

Carefully, Skipper put on the smaller teen's tie. It was then that Private realized how close he was to his leader, they hadn't been that close since last night. Finishing in tying Private's tie, Skipper grinned at him before taking his wrist and pulling him towards the kitchen. They ate the cereal and toast in silence and quickly got their things together. Once everybody was ready they locked the apartment, and walked downstairs to the bus stop on the corner. Private noticed that nearly everybody in the apartment block was already there.

Rachel and Marlene were listening to an ipod together; Max and Rodger were debating about an anime show, Doris and her sister Ariel were looking in a science book, Samantha and Hailey were talking quietly and Julien and Mort were sitting quietly in the bus shelter with Mort hugging Julien side contentedly. It seems that the seniors of the apartment building were starting school later than the others. Doris and Samantha were the same age as the team, while Ariel and Hailey were both 13.

"Alight, men, we are starting our junior year. So I want the best grades for this year. That means no slacking off." Skipper told his team with an intimidating glare, he was just trying to make sure his team was focused so that they could do more missions.

"You can count on us, Skippah!" Private exclaimed and gave a quick salute. He then blushed in embarrassment, he hadn't meant to sound so corny. Skipper however, nodded in enthusiasm and let his lips twist into a content smile.

'_He hasn't smiled like that in ages.' _Private noted, as the bus came slowly down the street. The bus was silver and already had many students on it. Everyone got on quickly, and found seats. Kowalski pointed out four seats for the team to sit on and went to those. Kowalski sat by the window and took out his notebook, while Rico sat comfortably next to him. Private took the seat behind Kowalski and took out his ipod to listen to and Skipper sat down next to him. Private flipped through his play lists, trying to locate the new song he had downloaded three weeks before.

"Private, can I listen?" Skipper asked suddenly, startling the smaller teen.

"Of course, Skippah." Private mumbled and handed Skipper earphone. The music was deep and hypnotic and it was a well known song. Earlier in the year the team had gone to see "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and this song was basically the theme song for the movie. They listened for a while, and Skipper had leaned closer to Private. So close that Private could feel the heat radiating from the leader. Skipper had the side of his face nearly pressed to Private's cheek.

Ten minutes later the bus had finally arrived at Zoolander Heights High School. It was one of the best high schools in New York City and it boasted the best science program in the state. As the group walked to the Admin Office to get their class schedules, Private was day dreaming about the classes. As Skipper was in front of the group he was the first to get his schedule. Glancing at the schedule to make sure he got the right classes, he read the schedule.

_Monday 1__st__ September Weekly Schedule Seth Sarge Form Class 11U3_

_1__st__ Period English 1A 8:20- 9:20_

_2__nd__ Period Maths 1A 9:20- 10:20_

_Recess 10:20- 10:50_

_3__rd__ Period Music 1A 10:50- 11:50_

_4__th__ Period Health Education Studies 1B 11:50- 1:00_

_Lunch 1:00- 1:30_

_5__th__ Period Psychology 1A 1:30- 2:20_

_6__th__ Period Art 1B 2:20- 3:20_

He breathed a sigh of relief; he had gotten the right subjects after all. Quickly swapping subjects with his team he realized they were all in the same classes, only Kowalski and Private both had Integrated Science when Skipper and Rico had Health Education Studies and Kowalski had IT Studies when the other three had Music. Also swapping schedules with Julien, Max, Rodger, Doris and Samantha they all had a similar schedule to him. The younger kids then got their schedules and realized their classes were all the same. Private grinned excitedly; he wouldn't wait to see Ms. Tolhurst again. Coming back from DC, Private and Ms. Tolhurst had sat next to each other. Ms. Tolhurst was also going to be the new Psychology teacher. Glancing to the clock on the office wall, it said that it was 8:15.

"Skippah, we have to go!" Private said quickly to his leader. Skipper nodded as the group headed to their first English class. When they bot their there were still a lot of seats left. Private and Skipper sat in the available seats in the front, Kowalski and Rico both sat behind them, Julien sat in the seat to Skipper's left, Max, Samantha and Rodger sat near the back and Doris sat to the right of Kowalski.

On the bell, the teacher walked into class. He was young and looked as though he just got out of college. He had brown spiky hair, tanned skin and big green eyes.

"Good morning, Juniors!" The man said with a lot of enthusiasm. He had a bright smile on his face and his eyes shined brightly.

"My name is Mr. Fredrick, but you guys can call me Sam." The teacher, now dubbed as 'Sam' said. The class seemed to smile a bit, but clearly everyone wanted to get on with their English work. Skipper put his hand up casually and waited for 'Sam' to spot him

"Yes, Seth?" Sam asked when he spotter Skipper. Skipper's eyebrows shot up in surprise. How did that teacher know his name already? Private was also surprised.

'_How does that teacher know Skipper's name already? He hasn't even taken the role yet.' _Private thought worriedly. Could he be a spy for Dr. Blowhole or something?

"How do you know me name?" Skipper demanded hostilely, glaring at the now amused teacher.

"Your older brother, Peter, is a close friend of mine." Sam stated calmly and reassuringly, but Skipper found it patronising. Sam then walked to his desk and sat down, taking out a pen and a sheet of paper that had the role.

"Okay, so just give a shout out if you're here." Sam said nicely before calling out the first name.

"Kalen Berg?"

"Here, sir." Kowalski said feebly as Sam marked him off.

"Rodger Crocer?"

"Here! Oh, over here! Pick me!" Yep, Rodger was here. It was then that Private faded out of concentration.

"Percy Swimmer?" The English teacher's voice cut into Private's day dreams like a knife through butter.

"Here!" Private exclaimed quickly, wondering if the teacher had caught him day dreaming. Luckily, Sam moved to the last name on the list.

"Seth Sarge?"

"What do you think?" Came the sarcastic reply from Skipper, but when Private looked over to his leader Skipper had that same cocky smirk. After the role Sam started to chat about what they would be learning. They were starting with short stories first, then moving onto poetry and song writing and then report writing before Christmas. After that Sam then said that everyone could have free time to do whatever. Private put his earphones in his ears and listened to his ipod. Private glanced over to the teacher, who was currently grinning like a maniac.

'_There is something off about this fellow.' _Private thought worriedly as Julien slumped in his chair and fell asleep. Kowalski and Rico got out a contraption that Kowalski had been working on throughout the summer and began to test it out. About ten minutes later, the bell rang and the class left of Maths.

Maths was about the same really, a new teacher and working with number. After the teacher did the role, everyone got stuck into the Maths Books and did some equations. Private smiled, he had always liked Maths while Kowalski loved Maths with a passion. With the bell finally ringing, the kids walked quickly to Recess. Typically, the school would just shove the kids outside for break and today was no exemption. There were many clouds into the sky, but they looked pretty non-threatening. Maurice walked out of his last class and headed straight to Julien, while Mort ran up to Julien and hugged his side. Ariel and Hailey walked up to their sisters and chatted about their subjects. Finally, Private found his friends sitting under a big cherry blossom tree. Skipper was munching on a cookie and Kowalski was eating a box of raisins. Rico was practically inhaling a huge cookie. They were all sitting on the bench, except for Rico who sat comfortably on the ground. Private sat next to Skipper and got out of his recess of Mars and M+M cookies and a box of raisins.

When the bell rang a few minutes later, Private, Rico and Skipper walked to the Music classroom, while Kowalski disappeared off to IT Studies. When they got to class, they realized the entire class was actually crowded around an ipod docking station with and ipod in it. The teacher wasn't here yet so Rico took out the ipod, turned it on and put it back in the docking station, selecting a song at random. It was the song "New Divide" by Linkin Park. The other teens were so mesmerised by the music that they didn't see the teacher come in. He was African American with light brown eyes and cool black dreadlocks that were pulled into a lose ponytail. He was tall and he wore a nice button up T-shirt and dark blue jeans.

"Hey, class. I'm Jazz Jackson, and no I'm not related to the Michael Jackson." He introduced himself with a calm smile. The teens glanced worriedly at each other, wondering when Mr. Jackson was going to punish them for looking at his ipod. But, Mr. Jackson seemed to read their minds.

"Don't worry, guys. You're not in trouble for looking in my ipod. In fact, I left that there for you guys." The teacher smiled down to his students. Private smiled, the school had gotten some really nice teachers this year.

"Now, who likes this song?" Mr. Jackson asked the class. Nearly everyone put their hands up, except for Julien who sulked. Mr. Jackson turned his attention to Julien.

"Now, why don't you like this song?" The teacher asked kindly, and waited for the self proclaimed king to answer.

"It is being a strange song. I am not liking it much." This statement was true because when Private took King Julien to see the movie, the self-proclaimed king didn't like it that much. Skipper rolled his eyes from behind Rico and Private sighed.

"Okay, guys, I have some homework I need you guys to do for me." Mr. Jackson said, causing the class to groan.

"Chillax, all you have to do is write a brief page on your favourite band and the music they play." The teacher explained, and some students nodded in excitement. They couldn't wait to do the homework.

After Music, Private walked be himself to Integrated Science and sat down next to Kowalski and Doris on the same table. They both smiled at him in greeting and turned back to their conversation about the new movie that was coming out in a month and eleven days. It was called "New Moon" and it was the second movie in the Twilight Saga. Kowalski and Doris were chatting about the characters and Kowalski was arguing that a vampire and a werewolf would make a better couple than a vampire and a human. It was quite funny to watch, but something was off. Kowalski wasn't blushing or stuttering around Doris anymore, he was speaking to her confidently and happily.

'_Maybe he doesn't have a crush on her anymore…' _Private thought with a relieved sigh. It wasn't like he was happy that Kowalski didn't like Doris anymore, it's just that at least Kowalski wouldn't get distracted by her when he was on recon. The teacher walked in when the bell rang, minutes later, and smiled warmly at the class. After taking the role, the teacher went into a full explanation on what they would be studying this year. Apparently, they were studying Forensic Science first, which made Kowalski squeal in excitement and collapse in a fit of insane laughter and made Doris sweat drop at his strange behaviour. Private smiled eagerly, he was ready to learn.

After Integrated Science was Lunch, so Private and Kowalski walked to the Cafeteria together. Doris ran to Samantha, Hailey and Ariel and started to talk really fast. Rico and Skipper were already sitting and eating when Private and Kowalski joined them. Rico grinned at Kowalski when he arrived and dragged him into the seat next to him. Private sat down next to Skipper quickly and began to munch on his fries. Skipper then leaned over and took some fries too. Kowalski was eating a sandwich he had packed for himself and an apple he had grabbled earlier from the lunch line.

"How was Integrated Science, Private?" The leader asked the smaller teen.

"It was fine Skippah. We are going to be learning Forensic Science." The light blue eyed teen said with a smile.

"Good, you and Kowalski should be excited." Skipper said with a faint smirk, but his eyes shone in deep thought.

"Also, I found something out." Private said excitedly to his leader. Skipper raised his eyebrows in interest.

"Yeah?" Skipper urged Private on, wanting to know what the smaller teen had found out. Kowalski tore his eyes of his food and glanced at Private, also in interest.

"I'll tell you later, sir." The smaller teen shrunk under Kowalski's stare.

For the rest of lunch, nothing really happened. The bell rang, signalling the start of their next class. Psychology was a fairly new class, but only Private and Skipper had taken this class the last school year. So when Private walked with his friends, he wondered what he was going to learn this year. Skipper seemed fairly excited, but Kowalski was deep in thought. Rico looked a bit pale, Private noted but still walked on. When they all arrived at the classroom, everyone's mouths fell completely open. There were three big comfy couches that you could just sink into, a plasma screen TV with a Wii, a few desks in the back with office chairs that you could spin around in, and three of those weird sofas that they had in Psychiatrists offices with chairs next to them and a circle of comfy cushions in the far corner of the room. Some of their friends were already there. Doris and Marlene were sitting on one of the big comfy couches with Julien, who looked rather excited. Max and Rodger were sitting together, on another couch talking about if they should do a radio show or a web show together.

Minutes later, Miss Tolhurst walked in carrying a box. Quickly everyone sat down in the circle of aligned cushions. Private sat down in between Skipper and Julien, while Kowalski sat in between Doris and Rico who had sat down on the other side of Skipper. There weren't many people in the class. Only 14 students, including Private and his friends, Julien, Max and Rodger, Doris and Marlene and five others that Private didn't know to well.

"Hello, class. I'm Miss Tolhurst, your new Psychology teacher." The teacher greeted the 14 students with a smile. The class felt rather smiled back and relaxed. She then took the role and asked us to get out a piece of paper and a pencil. After everyone got out a pencil and a piece of paper she then told the class to write down three sentences, two statements being true and one statement being false. The game was called "Two Truths and a Lie" and Private had indeed played this game before. He had played it when he had first met Skipper, Kowalski and Rico as a learning exercise. Carefully, Private wrote down his three statements.

**1. My older brother is 5 years older than me.**

**2. I have been with me friends for 3 years.**

**3. I hate the sunrise.**

The third one was the lie, but most people in the class wouldn't peg him for it.

By the time the class had finished playing the game, Private had learned a few things about his friends. He had found out that Marlene hated walruses, Doris loves dolphins and owns a dolphin called Bubbles, Julien has a pet gecko called Stevie, Rodger had written a famous play, Max hated anything Twilight, Kowalski had invented a ray gun that made people fall in love, Rico had a special bomb hidden in his room and Skipper has a secret crush. The game was rather fun but Private had thought he already knew a lot about his friends.

'_I guess you can't know everything about your team-mates.' _Private thought with a smile as he doodled Skipper's name in his notebook. After the game Miss Tolhurst had given the class free time until the end of class.

Beneath the drawing of Skipper's name Private wrote a short note.

"_Something seems off about our English teacher." _Private scribbled and quickly tore out the note and handed it to Skipper, who was dragged into a conversation by Julien after the game had ended. Underneath that Skipper had written back to Private.

"_Sam? Yeah, something just doesn't sit right with that guy."_ Skipper's slanted script had said. Something was wrong with that English teacher, and Private was going to find out one way or another.

When the bell had rang at 2:20, Private and his many friends walked to Art. Art was their last class of the day, and Private was excited. The Art teacher was a strange one. Her name was Angelica Fairheart and she had curly red hair that reacher her shoulders and light hazel eyes. She was also Alice's sister, strangely enough. When everyone filled into the class, Miss Fairheart quickly took the role and got Marlene and Doris to hand out big sheets of paper and an art pencil each.

"Today we are going to draw what we see in our minds, kids." She instructed the class.

Private, who was seated with Kowalski, Rico and Skipper quickly started drawing a picture of the sunrise he had seen while on his camp. Skipper was drawing a picture of his team-mates. Rico was drawing various pictures of explosions and Kowalski was drawing a picture of a science lab. As Private picked up the red pencil, he fell deep in thought about what had happened on the camp.

_Private growled angrily as he ran. He was late to his last training session of the camp. It was the alarm clock's fault. He was 10 minutes late when he got there and tried to apologize for his lateness to his supervisor, Mr. McKesson. When Private glanced up he saw that Mr. McKesson wasn't there at all. It was Perry Swimmer, his older brother. Perry had teal spiky hair, deep brown eyes and a normal black and white Force uniform. Perry glared down at his younger brother with hateful eyes._

"_Shut up and warm up already. I have no time for useless excuses." The older agent spoke coldly. Private hadn't heard that tone of voice in years and he felt uneasy being on thee receiving end of the cold tone. After Private had warmed up he and Perry got out the boxing gloves and began to spar. _

_Private knew it wasn't a friendly spar when Perry threw the first punch. The punch had landed on his side of his head and it made Private's head spin. More punches and kicks were traded and insults came just as quickly. Finally, Perry had him pinned to the wall and was breathing heavily on Private's neck. Blood leaked down Private's chin and onto his neck. Perry gently stuck out his tongue and licked the blood of the teenager's neck. Strong teeth brushed over the skin of Private's neck in warning. _

"_No, don't…please…you can't…Perry!" Private whimpered against Perry. The teeth gently bit down, piercing the skin and drawing blood…_

"-vate, Private!" Skipper's voice broke Private out of his reverie and turned his attention to his leader. Luckily, Art ended minutes later. Putting his unfinished sunrise picture into his new Art Portfolio, Private left the school in a hurry. Deciding not to take the bus home, Private began to walk home. It only took 20 minutes to get from the school to the apartment building, so the small teenager dawdled home. When he arrived at "The Zoo", he took the lift to the first floor and walked to the apartment.

"Private, where were you?" Skipper yelled immediately as Private entered the apartment.

"I decided to walk home, _sir_." Private said acidly as he walked past Kowalski and Rico and disappeared into his room. Skipper followed him and slammed the door behind him.

"Have you forgotten the credo, solider?" Skipper's dark sapphire blue eyes narrowed as he glared at the other teen.

"Never walk alone?" Private asked. Oh yes, he knew the credo. It had been drilled into his brain for the last 3 years, so yeah he knew the credo.

"Yes, that's the one." The commander said in relief, sighing. Private hung his head, hiding the tears that were threatening to spill.

"I'm sorry, Skipper. The memories just came flooding back, I couldn't control them." The smaller teen whispered, staring at his shoes. Gently, Skipper placed a hand under Private's chin and tilted his head up. Skipper could see the already there tear stains and the big bright blue watery eyes.

"No, I'm sorry Private. I should have listened when you said you didn't want to talk about it." The taller teen said quietly with sad eyes. Private gasped quietly, he hadn't seen his leader's guard drop since last night.

Later that night, after dinner Private was taking a hot shower. As the warm water brushed over every surface on his skin, he gently ran his fingers over the bite mark on the base of his neck. The teen knew that the mark would heal over time, but Private knew the emotions and feeling would remain there forever. After the shower, Private got into his pyjamas and climbed into his bed. When Skipper walked into their shared room and few minutes later, Private pretended to be asleep. Skipper quickly walked over to the door and locked it. Skipper then made his way to Private's bed and sat down on the edge of the bed. Private gave a soft fake moan and Skipper leaned over him, to check that he was asleep. Skipper then quickly, leaned down fully and pressed a soft kiss to the smaller teen's forehead and gently ruffled his hair.

Later that night, Private was convincing himself that he had in fact dreamed that. It was too bad that the answer was always going to be the same. Skipper had kissed Private on the forehead, and they both knew it.

* * *

_So give me reason / to prove me wrong / to wash this memory clean  
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes  
Give me reason / to fill this hole / connect the space between  
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies _

_Across this new divide_

_~ New Divide by Linkin Park_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

Peter, Skipper's older brother in my story, is Peter the Panda from Phineas and Ferb. So, I don't own Phineas and Ferb.

I don't own "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".

From,

Lina Ben


	4. Chapter 4: Stop and Stare

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does.

I don't own "Stop and Stare" by OneRepublic.

Chapter 4: Stop and Stare

* * *

_This town is colder now, I think it's sick of us  
It's time to make our move, I'm shakin' off the rust  
I've got my heart set on anywhere but here  
I'm staring down myself, counting up the years  
Steady hands, just take the wheel  
And every glance is killing me  
Time to make one last appeal for the life I lead_

_~Stop and Stare by OneRepublic_

* * *

The week flew by rather quickly for Private, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico. They had all started learning short stories in English, they all had a Maths test on Thursday and Private and Kowalski both had the highest scores in the class, Private, Rico and Skipper were learning about different kinds of music while Kowalski was learning how to de-bug computers, Private and Kowalski were happily learning about Forensic Science while Skipper and Rico learned about organs of the human body, they all learned about stress in Psychology and in Art they had all started on their first task of painting a picture and writing a story to go with it. School was fun for the four friends, but things were starting to get a bit crazier. It was Perry's birthday coming up and Private hadn't bothered to find a gift for his estranged brother. That was until Skipper pointed out that it was Perry's birthday coming up.

It was finally Friday and Private, Skipper, Rico, Kowalski were all in Psychology with Max, Marlene, Doris, Julien and Rodger. They were all sitting at the same couch, writing down what stresses were in each other's lives.

"Okay, what is being your stress thingies short one." Julien's highly accent voice cut into Private's thoughts of the weekend. It was a long day and Private had a slight headache from of the schoolwork.

"Um…well, it-it's m-my brother's b-birthday c-coming up." Private managed to stutter out, glancing down to the couch.

"Uh-huh, and?" Julien asked, gazing at Private with his big brown eyes. The rest of the group also gazed at Julien and Private in interest.

"I-I d-don't know w-what t-to get him, and I-I'm r-really worried h-he wont l-like what I g-get him." Private stuttered with a hint of fear in his voice. Skipper, realizing this was something Private didn't want to talk about, tried to re-direct the attention back to him.

"You know, I'm kinda stressed about my ex Lola. I think she wants to get back together with me." Skipper said with a small but short voice. Julien turned his attention to Skipper with an annoyed glare.

"I was being talking to the short one, not you." Julien said shortly, but with an air of superiority.

'_Not this again…'_ Private thought with a silent groan. Julien and Skipper were both famous at Zoolander Heights High for their arguments. It was also the fact that they were both ridiculously stubborn and even childish when it came to their petty arguments. Most of the students in the school even took bets on their fights, that it had become such a normal thing. But despite their arguments, they were also good friends. It was strange but completely normal. Sure, Private, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico still had their fair share of arguments, but that was normal too.

"Yeah, well it's obvious that Private doesn't want to talk about his private business." Skipper growled defensively while Kowalski and Rico merely settled glaring at the self pro-claimed king.

"I deserve to know! I am king after all." Julien retorted with an annoyed glare. Private sighed, it was too late now.

"No-one voted you as their king, _Julien._" Skipper hissed, putting careful pressure on the self pro-claimed king's name.

'_Oh shi-' _Private thought but didn't get a chance to finish it. Julien was getting ready to 'freak out' as Maurice so cleverly put it.

"My name is King Julien, subjects!" Julien suddenly yelled, startling the while class. Quickly, Miss Tolhurst walked over with an annoyed look on her face.

"Who yelled, just now?" The teacher asked, with a glint in her eye. Skipper pointed to Julien with a smug smirk on his face.

Julien wasn't yelled at, but was given a warning on his behaviour. There was still 4 minutes before the end of class when Julien walked back in with Miss Tolhurst, so Marlene started to talk about The Twilight series with Doris while the others listened. Apparently, the entire saga was going to be made into movies. When Private had read the series, he found it an awesome series but he didn't understand why so many people hated it. It was a pretty likeable series, but he had to admit that the plot was a tad clichéd. The bell rang a few minutes later and they all walked to Art. In Art everyone was working on the first task. They all had to draw out their ideas first before they could paint and write. Skipper was drawing a very detailed picture of an empty war memorial, Kowalski was drawing a picture of a messy lab with a dead body, Rico was drawing a picture of explosions and a war torn world and Private was drawing a picture of the top of an apartment building with two people and a sunrise. They spent the entire lesson in silence, which was odd for them. Ms. Fairheart was happy, though. Finally when the bell rang, nearly everyone ran out of the class room. It was finally the weekend and everyone was celebrating. In fact, Private and his friends were going roller-skating with Julien, Maurice, Max and Rodger. Mort was staying at Marlene and Rachel's place tonight with Hailey, Samantha, Doris and Ariel. They were having a sleepover.

Everyone walked home together, talking excitedly unknowingly being watched.

'_This is going to be great. I can't wait to go roller-skating!' _Private thought excitedly as two teenage girls gazed at the group in interest. As the group hurried home, Private felt as if he was being watched. Brushing of these feeling with ease, Private walked a bit faster to catch up with everyone.

'_It's probably nothing.' _Private thought casually, but still kept on his toes. Finally reaching Zoolander Heights, the group walked inside and Private walked up to greet the doorman.

"Good afternoon, Alice!" Private greeted the strange red head with a cheery smile. Alice turned to him with a clearly patronising smile.

"Why, hello Percy! How was your day?" She said with false enthusiasm and a lot of sarcasm. Private, however, missed the sarcasm entirely.

"It was great!" Private said back with real enthusiasm. Alice's face changed suddenly from a fake smile to a very real frown. She then turned around and walked into her office, slamming the door. Before the door had slammed Private swore he heard "Friggin' teenagers!" Then again, maybe it was just the wind. That wasn't blowing through the open door.

At around 5:30 Private, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico got ready to go roller-skating. When Private walked out of his and Skipper's shared room he was wearing a black long sleeve button up T-shirt, blue T-shirt, denim jeans with chains and his favourite converse shoes. Kowalski and Rico had some how managed to dress identically. They were both wearing a band T-shirt that was hidden by dark blue hoodies, jeans and black tennis shoes.

'_At least we won't lose them in the crowd.' _Private noted as he tried to suppress his laughter when he saw Kowalski and Rico. Skipper was wearing a blue button up long sleeve T-shirt, white T-shirt, jeans and green converse shoes. Skipper however, hid his laughter easily, but Private could see the laughter in his leader's dark sapphire blue eyes. It was nearly 6:00 when everyone walked next door to pick up Julien, Maurice, Max and Rodger. Max and Rodger were both staying the night at Julien's place. Max and Rodger were both wearing white T-shirts, jeans, tennis shoes and jackets. Rodger was wearing a deep emerald leather jacket with a rusting zip and Max was wearing a neon orange leather jacket with a shining zip. Julien and Maurice were wearing dark grey T-shirts, black jeans, converse shoes and brown jackets. When everyone was ready they started their long walk to the roller rink. It wasn't really a long walk; it was only 10 minutes away. As they started walking Private felt that same feeling as before. Little did he know, the same teenage girls that were watching the group before were watching them again.

They arrived at the roller rink 10 minutes later, wanting to get inside. The roller rink was called Rave n' Skate Roller Rink and Private had been here many times before. The guys quickly paid to get in and went to get their skates. Once everyone had gotten their skates, they headed out onto the rink and rolled together around the rink once before breaking off into different groups. Rico and Kowalski skated off together and performed insane moves in the middle of the rink. Julien and Maurice skated off to try and flirt with some girls. Max and Rodger were both skating around the rink together holding each other's hands. Skipper skated to the railings and promptly held on.

'_Not afraid of anything, yet he can't skate by himself.' _Private sighed as he watched two teenage girls skate onto the floor. Skipper gave a small barely audible whimper as he slipped and grabbed onto the railings again.

"C'mon, Skippah. Grab my hand." Private said with a sigh, holding out his hand for the other to take. Skipper then quickly let go of the railings and gripped Private's hand in one fluid motion. Holding hands with his leader felt somewhat strange but incredibly good. Private began to feel a warm tingling sensation climb up from his hand, up his arm and into his body, warming him from head to toe. Skipper's grip was tight on Private's hand, but the smaller teen didn't mind at all. Music started to beat from the big speakers that surrounded the rink and two scrawny teens and one big muscly teen skated onto the rink, intimidating everyone.

For the next four hours, skating around the rink became incredibly enjoyable for Skipper and Private as they skated. Nearby, two teenage girls skated along and sang along to the music. The girls were both wearing white button up T-shirts, black vests, denim jeans and lace up skates. Then the night drew to an end. It was 10:30 by the time everyone gave back their skates and walked home. It was an eerie and cold night and Private and Skipper were walking very closely together when the heard a scream echo through out the night.

"Help! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhhh! Help us, please!" A teenage girl's voice yelled as Private, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico ran to where they heard the scream. When they arrived in the alleyway where they heard the scream come from, Private saw the two same girls from before. The buttons on both of their shirts and vests had been un-buttoned all the way down and they were holding each other as the three intimidating males from the roller rink pressed them against a wall. Then rather bravely, one of the girls pulled her leg back and swung at the muscly male connecting with his crotch. The muscly male then let out a pained whimper, gripping his crotch and collapsing to the ground.

Quickly knocking out the two other teens, Skipper and Private walked calmly to the girls.

"Are you okay, girls?" Private asked the two of the girls in a polite and nice tone. The girl that had kicked the muscly teen's crotch looked up and managed a smile. She had long curly brown hair that had been put up into a ponytail, big emerald eyes that weren't hidden very well by big glasses and lightly tanned skin. The other girl had light brown long straight hair, hazel eyes and lightly tanned skin. Private politely gazed at their faces as Skipper glared at the two males who were unconscious on the ground.

"What are your names?" Private asked the two girls while Kowalski and Rico walked up to them.

"My name is Lina, Lina Rosemary and this is my friend Carolyn Drawn." The light brown haired girl said with a smile. 'Carolyn' smiled but blushed deeply when she realized that her and her friend's shirts were still un-buttoned. Quickly buttoning her shirt and urging her friend to do the same, Carolyn's cheeks went from red to pink.

"Will you ladies be okay?" Skipper asked, finally entering the conversation.

"We'll be okay." Lina smiled at the four male teens.

"Can we walk you home?" Private asked the two girls with a friendly smile.

"S-sure." Carolyn answered with a shy smile as the team started to walk. She had a slight southern accent in her voice. The two girls were both staying at Carolyn's apartment luckily, so they didn't have to walk far.

"You guys go to Zoolander?" Lina asked the team, trying to start up a conversation. Private glanced over to Lina with a grin.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Private answered in slight surprise as the two girls smiled.

"Call it a hunch." Carolyn answered with another shy smile and blush. Private began to wonder, how hadn't he seen these two girls before?

"We go to Liberty Shore High School; it's a collage that focuses on Literature." Lina told the boys, seemingly reading Private earlier thoughts.

After the boy delivered the girls at Carolyn's apartment, Carolyn wordlessly gave Private a piece of paper with both Lina and her e-mail addresses, phone numbers and home addresses.

"Thanks for saving us." Carolyn thanked the boys with a shy smile. Lina rolled her eyes and smirked.

"You handled things pretty well, actually. You didn't need our help, really." Skipper told Carolyn with his famous cocky smirk. Waving goodbye to their new friends, the team left. It was then during the walk home that Private got a good look at his leader. There were some faint scars on his face and those dark sapphire blue eyes made Private get lost in them. Those endless orbs, those dark inquisitive orbs. Private hadn't realized he had stopped walking until Skipper was trying to catch his attention.

"-vate? Private?" Skipper asked the smaller teen, waving his hand in front of Private face. Private blinked and seemed to come out of his daydream. He shook his head and glanced worriedly at his leader.

"Sorry, sir. I don't think I'm feeling very well." Private apologized to his leader, his cheeks turning pink with warmth. His head was swimming and he could barely walk straight.

"We'll be home soon, Private." Skipper said and pulled Private's arm around his shoulders. They all arrived home a few minutes later, Private falling to the couch with a tired sigh. Maurice, Julien, Rodger and Max had walked home ahead of the boys when the team saved Carolyn and Lina from the thugs. Suddenly Private felt a hand being pressed to his forehead and Skipper leaned in closer to Private's face.

"Huh, you do feel a bit warm." Skipper noted as Kowalski wrote something down on his notebook he had gotten out.

As soon as the sudden sickness came it was gone in a matter of minutes. Private felt a lot better and Skipper just looked confused.

"Kowalski, options on Private's sickness." The leader ordered the taller teen. Kowalski flipped pages on his notebook and gave a sigh.

"He might be sick with a fever. Or it could have just been a hot flash." The tallest teen said with a tired voice.

Skipper told the other two to go to bed and gently picked up the smaller teen. As Skipper walked to his room, Private gazed at the ceiling. When Skipper got to their room, he gently put Private on his bed and pulled out some pyjamas. Skipper threw Private's clothes to him and he quickly slipped out of his clothes and got into his pyjamas. Private got into his pyjamas and tried to button up his long sleeved shirt. Sighing, Skipper walked over and buttoned up Private's shirt. Finally they both got into their beds and Skipper turned out the light. About 10 minutes later, Skipper got out of his bed and walked across the room and sat down on Private's bed. Private pretended to be asleep as he felt pressure on the springs. Gently leaning down, Skipper pressed a kiss to the smaller teen's forehead and another to his left cheek.

"Goodnight, Private. Sweet dreams." The leader whispered to Private and ruffled his hair, stroking it back down again before walking back to his own bed and crawling under the covers and falling asleep.

'_Why does he show this soft vulnerable side to me and not to the others?' _Private asked himself, but even Skipper didn't know the answer.

* * *

_Stop and stare  
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere  
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared  
But I've become what I can't be, oh  
Stop and stare  
You start to wonder why you're 'here' not 'there'  
And you'd give anything to get what's fair  
But fair ain't what you really need  
Oh, you don't need_

_~Stop and Stare by OneRepublic_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

The muscly teen and the two scrawny teens are the rats from the sewer in the Penguins of Madagascar series.

I offered ponytail30527 a guest star position and she said yes. Her character is Carolyn Drawn. So she owns Carolyn Drawn.

I own Lina Rosemary and she is my character in this story.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does.

From,

Lina Ben_  
_


	5. Chapter 5: Misery

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does.

Unfortunately, I won't have much time to work on Red Dawn for the next few weeks because school is starting again. I'm not completely stopping; it will just take longer than normal to post new chapters.

I don't own Family Guy by Seth MacFarlane.

I don't own "Transformers" by Michael Bay.

I don't own "Misery" by Good Charlotte.

Chapter 5: Misery

* * *

_Take a look around  
Don't you see it  
See that you are the only real face in the room  
No one here has a clue what your feelin'  
Don't feel bad  
Keep your sadness alive  
~Misery by Good Charlotte_

* * *

For the next three weeks Private thought desperately for a gift for his older brother. He even considered calling home to his mother and father to ask for their opinions. Then again, he hadn't talked to his mother and father in so long, he had forgotten the his mother moved back to England about a year ago and his father was the leader of the Force and now lived in Washington D.C. The only other family he had other than his parents and brother was his aunty to his mother's side, Sophie. It was now the 25th of September and Perry's birthday was on the 8th of October so he didn't have very long to get a birthday present for his estranged brother. On the other hand, the last time Private had seen his brother, Perry had pinned the small teen up to a wall and nearly munched into his neck. Private had already thought about getting Perry a new torch for his gun, but the store he went to had all run out.

'_Why do I even want to give the bastard a present for his birthday? He was a sadistic psycho the last time I saw him, or should I say, sparred with him.' _Private had thought that morning before Skipper called everyone to breakfast.

It was now lunch time and a few of the seniors that lived in Zoolander Heights were planning a party. Now these seniors were not ordinary, like most believed they were. They were four 17 year olds that lived in the floor above Private and his friends on the same floor as Max, Hailey and Samantha. They were Alakay Lyon, known to everyone as 'Alex'. His best friend Marty Stripes, who had an unusual hair-do of black and white spiky hair. The only girl in the group, Gloria Orchid who had short dark grey hair with a flower behind her ear. The strange nerdy guy known as Melman Longneck who had a deep crush on Gloria. These four had been best friends since kindergarten and they thought everyone else in the building was insane. There were also two other seniors. They also lived on the same floor as Private and his friends. They were Mason and Phil Chimp and they were twins. Phil was a mute but he loved to read and Mason talked a lot but couldn't read very well because he has had trouble reading for many years.

It was still lunch and Private was sitting next to Rico and across from Skipper who looked very annoyed. Skipper was annoyed because in his last class he had been given a bad grade for his Organs of the Human Body project. It was actually an above satisfactory grade but Skipper was very disappointed. In Integrated Science Private and Kowalski were learning how to dust a weapon for prints. Private found it fun but Kowalski was annoyed that he got stuck working with Private.

'_I guess he still likes her.' _Private thought with a sigh as he sipped his Coke. Skipper noticed the sigh and glanced up to his friend, eyebrows raised in questioning concern. When Skipper locked eyes with Private, the small teen glanced to Rico who had been staring at Kowalski during the entire meal.

'_Maybe Kowalski thinks I'll just drag him down.'_ Private thought dejectedly as Kowalski sent Private a small glare. Sensing the team's moods, Skipper put his hands together and laced his fingers together. Everyone on the table knew what that sign meant. It meant that the team needed to talk and sort out their problems. Skipper had taught his team these many signs he made when everyone had met. It was basic that everyone knew these signs.

After Psychology when everyone was walking to Art, Private thought again about his present for Perry.

'_Why not make a present for him?' _Private asked himself with a smile. When everyone arrived in Art, Skipper sat down next to Private and Rico sat by Kowalski. Everyone was still finishing off their paintings and stories. Private had finished his very detailed picture of a red sunrise on the top of an apartment building and was now working on his short story. He was finishing his last paragraph, trying to figure out how it would end.

_As the two teenagers watched the sunrise, an eerie red glow washed over their forms. It was such a beautiful sight. The taller teen gently wound an arm around the other teen's shoulders and pulled him close. The dawn was breath-taking in every way and it felt as if time had frozen, for just one moment. It was a red dawn and it meant that it was the start of a new adventure. _

Private smiled as he finished his short story. Skipper, who had finished his short story the week before and was currently working on his painting of an empty war memorial, glanced over Private's shoulder to read the last paragraph.

"Kinda cheesy, Private." The leader said with a teasing smile and a wink. Private smiled back at his leader, sheepishly.

"Sorry, sir." Private replied automatically, and blushed as Skipper gripped his hand.

"It's still good, Private." Skipper said quietly and squeezed his younger companions hand before turning back to his work.

'_Maybe I could write a poem for Perry.' _Private thought suddenly as Rico growled nearby. Turning his head to where Rico sat, Private glanced worriedly at his friend. Next to Rico, Kowalski had also turned his attention to his friend.

"Rico, you're holding your brush at the wrong angle. You need to hold it at a 45 degree angle, not a 90 degree angle." Kowalski sighed and made to correct his friend by grabbing a hold of Rico's hand that held the brush and turning his hand to a 45 degree angle. Then something happened that Private couldn't really explain. Rico gave a smile to the intellectual that was so full of raw emotion. Skipper was still focused on his work so he didn't see it, but Private and Kowalski got a full blast of that smile.

Suddenly feeling like an intruder, Private turned his body back to his desk and began to write a poem that would hopefully blow Perry's socks off. Near the end of the class Private swore he could have heard Rico whisper thank you to Kowalski. Or maybe it was just his imagination. When the bell rang Private packed up his stuff and left the Art room without a second glance. His friends had already bolted before the bell, but Private easily caught up with his friends. Tonight Private and his friends were hosting a sleepover. The guest list included Mort, Julien, Maurice, Max, Rodger, Mason and Phil and the girls were having a sleepover at Marlene's. It was going to be a fun night that was for sure. Catching up with his friends, Private fell into step with his leader. They were walking home with Julien, Maurice, Max, Rodger, Mason and Phil walking behind them as they talked about tonight activities.

When they arrived at Zoolander Heights Apartment block they headed to the apartment and took the guests on a tour of the snazzy apartment. Private walked to his room and browsed through his DVD library, searching for a good movie. Finally selecting Transformers, Private walked back out and into the main room where everyone else was getting comfortable on the couch and rolled out bed. Putting on the movie, Skipper locked eyes with his friend. Private knew what was going on. Skipper, Kowalski and Rico were already out on the balcony when Private got up and left the others. He quickly walked out onto the balcony and gave a sigh. The cool night air blew around the team and it felt refreshing and calming despite the situation.

"Okay, men, what's wrong?" Skipper began with a soft sigh, his dark blue sapphire eyes travelling from member to member. There was a short pause then Private started off.

"Why didn't you want to work with me Kowalski? In Forensic Science, I mean?" The smallest teen asked to the tall intellectual.

"I'm sorry, Private. I just thought I would be a more suited match to Doris, she did need a lot of help." The taller teen apologized but protested, his brown eyes softening.

"It's okay, but you could have told me you didn't want to work with me. I wouldn't have cared." Private sighed and walked closer to the tallest teen. He hugged the tall teen and to his surprise Kowalski hugged him back tightly. The wind picked up again and soft tears made their way down Private face.

He could feel Kowalski's muscles tighten and tense when Kowalski felt the tears. Private was surprised at the tears, he hadn't cried in a very long time and had no idea why he was crying now. Gently breaking away from the hug, Private rubbed his eyes, wiping the tears away. Suddenly, he felt another hand on his cheek wiping the tears away. Skipper's dark blue sapphire eyes softened as he wiped the smaller teen's face. It was a sweet moment that the team shared, and Rico didn't even gag or throw up.

"Team togetherness." Rico said in his deep voice that made the rest of the team jump. Then everyone started laughing, it was a nice moment. Finishing off the conversation with a deep sigh, everyone walked back inside and sat down to watch the movie. Skipper sat down next to Julien and started to silently wrestle the remote off him. Private sat down next to Skipper and grabbed the bowl of popcorn from Rodger. Kowalski and Rico sat down next to Max on the other couch and Kowalski placed an arm around Rico comfortably.

The rest of the night wasn't as eventful and everyone was just content to watch movies and Family Guy episodes. At around 11:00 pm, Julien gently picked up Mort and got Maurice to grab this school bag and promptly left. Mason and Phil had fallen asleep on the pull out bed and Max and Rodger had walked back to Max's apartment for more fun. After cleaning up a bit, Private and Skipper went to their room and got ready for bed. Private got out his school notebook and finished off his poem he was going to send to Perry the next day. It was titled "Waiting" and it was an amazing poem that really spoke about the feelings shared between the two estranged brothers.

_Trapped, forgotten from life_

_With the monster carrying the knife._

_Fear, thumps through his brain_

_Looking at the monster in vain._

_Revenge, floods his soul_

_Waiting for the monster to take control._

_Waiting, for the pain_

_Nothing will ever be the same._

_Whispers, calling in the breeze_

_The last dose was just a tease._

_Darkness, welcomes him into a crimson sea_

_He knows it was never meant to be. _

_Waiting, for the pain_

_Nothing will ever be the same._

Carefully reading over his poem to check that it made sense, Private checked it five times. Getting out an envelope, he put on a stamp and folding up the poem and letter into the envelope and got out his old beaded necklace that his mother had given him before she left. He kissed the necklace and then put it in the envelope. He then climbed under his covers and fell asleep after ten minutes. Skipper, however was still awake and was thinking about Lola. He had gotten a letter from her recently and she said that she wanted to get back together. He was thinking about it now, considering the pros and cons of the situation. Then again, he didn't want to put his heart out on the line again just so it could get broken again. He didn't want to put his team through the pain either. Falling asleep, what he didn't know was an enemy was watching them with dark eyes and even darker intentions. What Private didn't know was his letter would never get to Perry.

Hey, you know what they say, misery did always love company.

* * *

_Look at all these happy people  
Living their lives  
Look at all these plastic people  
They're dying inside  
Look at all these shallow people  
Telling their lies  
Look at all these empty people, people_

_~Misery by Good Charlotte_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

Did anyone see our New Yorkers from the Madagascar movies?

Nearly half way, guys! Private's poem is actually my poem I wrote for my cousin's 17th birthday. If anyone wants to use the poem, however, just PM and ask me first.

I put most of my disclaimers at the top, so this is only a very short A/N.

From,

Lina Ben


	6. Chapter 6: I Caught Myself

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does. I don't own "Twilight and I'm not sure who does.

I don't own Family Guy by Seth MacFarlane.

I don't own Peter the Panda or Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb.

I don't own "I Caught Myself" by Paramore.

Chapter 6: I Caught Myself

* * *

_You got it, you got it, some kind of magic  
Hypnotic, hypnotic, you're leaving me breathless  
I hate this, I hate this, you're not the one I believe in  
With God as my witness_

_~I Caught Myself by Paramore_

* * *

It was finally Saturday night and Private and his friends were doing something completely normal. As normal as it can get for four Force agents who were finally given an undercover mission to do after two months. The mission was to go to an expensive dinner and get Intel on what an evil scientist was up to. Fortunately, Peter the Panda, Skipper's older brother had just came back from Seattle and was supervising the undercover mission for the Force High Council. Skipper thought this was terrible while the others didn't really mind, Peter was actually really nice. Peter was also the same age as Perry and even went to the same high school as him.

It was 6:00 pm and everyone was still getting ready. Everyone was fixing up their tuxedos and putting on their wires and ear pieces. Silently asking for help from his leader, Private sighed as Skipper walked towards him to give him a once over.

"Looking sharp, Private." The leader said with a smile and a thumbs up as his dark sapphire blue eyes roamed the smaller teen's body. Blushing deeply, Private managed a small smile before turning to Peter to listen about what was happening tonight.

"So how is everything going to go down?" Skipper asked his older brother with a cocky smirk. It seemed that the cocky smirk was a Sarge family trait because Peter sent his brother a similar smirk and turned his gaze to the leader.

"Basically you'll be with Private and Rico will be with Kowalski. You'll all be having dinner with Dr. Sharkeel at his table and you're going to get some information out of him. It's just a simple intel mission, only you'll have your guns." Peter said all in one breathe with a cheeky smile that Private hadn't seen from the Sarge boys before.

When everyone arrived at the fancy dinner, it was 6:30 pm and Private was occasionally gripping his gun and fiddling with his suit nervously. They hadn't done an undercover mission in two months, and the last one they did they didn't get enough information. They all walked into the restaurant together and were showed to the doctor's table. Peter, however, sat comfortably in a van with all of the equipment to process the conversation. The four undercover agents smiled at the doctor when he greeted them. The team had all taken various personas to complete the mission. Kowalski and Private were top scientists from England and Skipper and Rico were their assistants. The doctor introduced himself and the team also introduced themselves and got talking. Dr. Sharkeel didn't really talk much about his work until Private asked when there was silence.

"So, what about your work? What are you working on at the moment, Dr. Sharkeel?" The small teen asked the evil scientist and immediately shut his mouth and bit his lip.

'_Oh crap! I hadn't meant to sound so straight forward.' _Private thought worriedly as the doctor gazed at him curiously. Skipper then gave a swift kick to his knee and Private gasped in pain.

It was then that Kowalski took over for Private.

"What Dr. Swimmer meant to say was what of your work? You haven't talked very much about it." Kowalski said quietly as the food they ordered before had finally arrived. The waiter set full sparkling champagne flutes in front of everyone on the table with their food.

'_Oh dear. I think he expects we are of age. How are we going to get out of this?' _Private asked himself silently as he sent a worried look to Skipper, who was eyeing the alcohol nervously. Suddenly an idea hit him on the head at full force, or maybe it was his imagination. His quickly sent a barely visible wink to his team and they blinked, acknowledging the sign.

"Did you know that if you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will sink to the bottom and then rise to the top?" Private told the evil scientist with a steady smile.

"Really?" Dr. Sharkeel asked with raised eyebrows. It was obvious that the evil scientist didn't believe him but Private had already pulled out a box of raisins and opened the box.

Skipper, seizing the opportunity was about to take the glasses but he realized the doctor had lost interest in Private's experiment and gazed at the other three.

"Actually, I would like to make a toast." The doctor said with a smile, raising his glass while the others picked up their glasses.

"To new friends!" The doctor toasted and the others clinked their glasses together and took their first sip of alcohol. It tasted bitter, with a very sweet after taste that made Private nearly gag on his drink. Private was already wondering if the others were lightweights or not. The sweet after taste that was still in his mouth made his head spin.

'_The drinks were laced with an accelerant that makes the alcohol work more quickly and make it as if you've had 6 drinks than just the one.'_ Private thought coherently though the blur in his mind. He had learned this at the academy nearly three years ago when he was learning about intel. In one particular lesson they had learned about drinks laced with drugs that enemies would offer.

'_We have to get out of here, now!' _Private yelled in his mind as he gazed worriedly at his friends. Skipper's face was stony, cold and emotionless but his eyes were glazed over. Rico and Kowalski seemed okay but Rico had a dreamy expression on his face and Kowalski looked horrified.

"Look, I'm sorry Dr. Sharkeel but I'm going to have to…arrest you for poisoning four federal agents. You're under arrest." Private started softly but spoke clearly at the end. It seemed that the laced drink was already wearing off because he had only taken a small sip. Skipper's dark sapphire blue eyes had focused and he took out a pair of cuffs. Kowalski and Rico also looked a lot better and were now smiling at each other as Peter walked into the restaurant with a smile on his broad face. The four agents took of their jackets, revealing their Force badges and four smallish guns with small fish like patterns. After arresting the evil doctor, the team and Peter walked out and went to their van to do various drug tests to see if everyone was okay.

"Well, you guys look okay but you're going to feel very hung-over in the morning. You'll be fine though." Peter stated to the still drugged team. Checking his watch, Private saw that it was only 8:12. The night was still young but Peter recommended to the team that they should stay a home for observation. Peter sighed and drove the team home, dropping off the doctor at the local Force headquarters on the way.

Before the team left in their fan Private could have sworn that he saw Sam, their way-to-perky English teacher, sitting at a table alone in the same restaurant. Or maybe it was the drugs that were still taking effect. When the team and Peter arrived home they all watched "Twilight" on the big screen TV. It was fun except that Peter quoted nearly every line that was spoken that Skipper had to shut him up by stuffing a pillow in his older brother's face so that everyone could watch the movie in silence. _"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb."_ the TV blared at the four teens and one adult. Private sighed softly; he loved that line in the movie. He hadn't even really noticed he had leaned gently into his leader's chest until Skipper gave an annoyed grunt, but the fearless leader allowed it. Private had always loved this movie because of the soundtrack and beautiful quotes. After the movie it was only 10:30, so Private walked outside on the balcony and inhaled the sweet cool air. The wind blew gently around him, refreshing him. The wind whispered against the orchids on the balcony, making gentle and soft whistling sounds almost like wind chimes.

The next morning, however, Private's head was hazy and he had a terrible head-ache. Throwing his pillows at his leader until he woke up, Skipper yawned and got ready for the cool Sunday. Private sighed as he got ready, shaking the weird dreams from his mind. The team had spent the morning inside and at around after lunch, the team walked to the rooftop and trained for the next four hours. Training went quickly for the team and after that, everyone walked back downstairs and had their showers and made dinner. It was school the next day and Private was excited that they were finally moving away from short stories and onto poetry. The others didn't seem as excited for the coming school day, but that didn't stop Private. After dinner, Private sat on his bed and typed on the computer. He was writing the final copy for his short story on his laptop so he could print it out and show Sam tomorrow. When Skipper and Private went to sleep that night, Private had strange dreams.

_Private opened his eyes and found himself chained in a darkened room with a grey dim light that bled into the room by a window in a high corner of the room. Shadows danced around the room and over Private's lean body as the dim light grew brighter. Private gave a shiver of surprise and glanced down to his lean body finding himself completely shirtless and only wearing lose baggy jeans and snow white boxers. As the light grew brighter he heard a messy jumble of voices grow louder. A door in the corner opened and a squirming body was thrown into the room. The darkness returned except for the dancing shadows, which remained. However, through the darkness Private saw Skipper's medium sized body and strong incredibly noticeable muscles. Skipper's chest was also bare and he only wore dark blue jean shorts and light blue boxers could be seen. _

_Luckily, Skipper hadn't noticed Private yet so the smaller teen remained completely silent. It was then that Skipper looked directly into Private's eyes and those dark sapphire blue orbs saw nothing but truth. _

Suddenly, Private was gently shaken into reality by his leader and he saw the same dark sapphire blue eyes again.

'_That dream was so strange, yet utterly amazing.' _Private thought as he dressed for school, managing to fix his tie by himself.

"You okay, Private? You look a tad rattled." Skipper asked, casting his questioning gaze to the younger teen.

"Just a dream, Skipper. I'll tell you about it later." Private said to his leader with a shy smile and a wink. By the time everyone sat down to breakfast, Kowalski was panicking about English. Rico was merely munching on muesli with an almost bored expression. Private smiled into his spoonful of cereal, trust Rico to be relaxed and bored while Kowalski panics over the littlest things. Skipper was sipping on his coffee, gazing between Private and Kowalski with a calm expression.

Getting on the bus with his friends was a brief blur to Private, but he seemed to flash back into reality when Skipper had asked again to listen to his ipod with him. Nearby, Rachel and Marlene were talking excitedly about "Twilight" squealing like fan girls; Max and Rodger were debating a sci-fi TV show, Doris and Ariel sat talking about a new song that had come out on the radio, Samantha and Hailey were writing in small notebooks and giggling about something weird, Julien and Maurice were gazing at Samantha with freaked out expressions and Mort giggled happily behind them and finally Kowalski and Rico who sat behind Private and Skipper were sitting together quietly in a comfortable silence. Kowalski was scribbling in his note book with a frustrated frown. When everyone arrived at school by 8:15 they all walked to English together. Julien was chatting excitedly to Maurice about something strange about a special protest that was happening the next weekend, but Private and Skipper weren't paying much attention.

The bell rang and it was the start of the first period. Sam walked into the room with an excited grin on his face.

"Good morning, class! How was everyone's weekends?" The young teacher asked the class excitedly while the class groaned in annoyance.

"Percy! How was the restaurant you and your friends went to on Saturday night?" Sam asked Private gazing at him with big green eyes. The four agents stiffened and tensed as the question was spoken.

'_Oh dear! What do I say?' _Private asked himself silently as the teacher gazed at his with big curious eyes.

"Uh…well, it was okay but we didn't stay long." Private answered steadily even though his head spun with unanswered thoughts. The rest of English, Sam discussed poetry with the class and sent quick side-long glances towards Private. Maybe the rest of the day would be better.

Catching yourself is always hard, but when you try to catch yourself from falling it gets harder. Just try not to fall too hard.

* * *

_Now when I caught myself, I had to stop myself  
From saying something that I should've never thought  
Now when I caught myself, I had to stop myself  
From saying something that I should've never thought of you_

_~I Caught Myself by Paramore_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

Half of Red dawn in now complete! I loved writing about Private's dream, it was so much fun! I'll get started writing chapter 7 tomorrow.

I haven't really got much else to say here only that I'd rather go to Private's school in my story because he can still listen to ipods.

From,

Lina Ben _  
_


	7. Chapter 7: Someday

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does. I'm pretty sure I don't own the idea for a Twilight play, but if I did I wanna do it at my school.

I don't own Peter the Panda or Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb.

I don't own "Someday" by Rob Thomas on his new album Cradle Song.

Chapter 7: Someday

* * *

_And maybe someday we'll figure all this out  
Try to put an end to all our doubt  
Try to find a way to make things better now that  
Maybe someday we'll live our lives out loud  
We'll be better off somehow, someday  
__~Someday by Rob Thomas_

* * *

Another three weeks flew by with three accomplished missions, many completed assignments and a lot of excitement. Max and Samantha finally professed their deep love for each other and were the mushiest couple this side of New York. Marlene, Rachel, Doris and Ariel all got parts in the school play. Due to its popularity, the movie "Twilight" had been chosen for the school play. Marlene got the part of Bella, Rachel got the part of Alice, Doris got the part of Esme and Ariel got the part of Rosalie. However, not many of the guys auditioned for the play. Julien got the part of Edward, Maurice got the part of James and Mort got the part of Jasper. It was Monday at lunch time when Private got an odd phone call. It was from his estranged brother, Perry which was very strange. Answering the call with a sigh, Private flipped open his mobile and pressed the green button.

"Hello, Perry?" Private greeted his brother with uncertainty, wondering why his brother would even want to talk to him.

"_Look, Private…I know that we haven't been on the best of terms lately but why didn't you send me anything for my birthday?"_ Perry's deep and awkward voice came from the receiver.

"What? I sent you a letter and a poem a few days before your birthday! If I remember correctly the last time you saw me you bit into my neck like a vampire!" Private yelled into the phone but hissed at the end of his protest. He still hadn't told the others what had happened, but when he glanced over to his team-mates Skipper was chatting happily with Kowalski and Rico listened with a contemplative expression.

"_The letter didn't get here, Percy. It wasn't my fault, what happened that sparring session." _Perry's voice had gone a touch deeper in the second sentence, indicating that he was lying to his younger brother.

"Sure it wasn't, Perry. You just were having a bad day and you accidentally took your frustrations out on me." Private snarled into the phone before flipping the phone back to its original position with a swift clicking sound.

The bell rang moments later and everyone got up and left for Psychology. As Private was walking he didn't realize that Sam, the weirdly happy English teacher had walked up behind him. Sensing someone else's presence, Private turned around and cam face-to-face with his English teacher.

"H-hello, Sam." Private greeted with a small stutter and a shy smile.

"Hello, Percy. Hey, uh, I didn't know you had a talent for poetry." The teacher said quickly, his big green eyes glittering nervously. Private was surprised, the class hadn't even started writing poetry yet. How could Sam already know that Private liked poetry? It was then that Private noticed something in the jittery teacher's hand. It looked like a very familiar letter.

"You see, uh, I found this letter and I opened it and saw that it was your poem in the envelope." Sam said rather quickly, his eyes darting from side to side.

"Sorry, Sam but I really gotta get to Psychology." Private excused himself and darted away from the teacher but not before snatching the letter back from Sam's hands.

When Private got to Psychology, he was only a few minutes late and Miss Tolhurst hadn't arrived yet. He quickly sat down next to Kowalski, the letter still clutched tightly in his hands. Skipper, Rico and Kowalski then noticed Private.

"You okay, Private? You look like you have just seen a ghost." Skipper noted, gesturing to Private's pale face.

'_Oh, really?' _Private thought to himself sarcastically and shot his leader a hard glare.

"By my count, Halloween is only 12 days away so Private couldn't have seen a ghost." Kowalski put in his two cents as he scrambled to find his notebook.

"Our post is being intercepted, Kowalski! I didn't see any ghosts!" Private finally blurted out, snapping at the tall intellectual. The three other agents froze when Private had said this and slowly turned their gazes to the smallest agent. Fortunately, before Private could elaborate, Miss Tolhurst had walked into the classroom with a strange expression. She looked as though she wanted to throw up, or 'blow chunks' as Rico and the rest of the team casually put it.

Their previous conversation forgotten, the four agents glanced worriedly at their teacher. She had then walked over to the couches where everyone sat and handed everyone a piece of paper and promptly left the room.

'_That was rather strange.' _Private thought with a confused frown. He then glanced at the paper. It said that they had a substitute teacher and they had to break into pairs to do the set work. The substitute teacher arrived minutes later after everybody had broken into pairs. The woman was middle aged and had light pink dyed hair which was curly and murky blue eyes. She appeared to be over-weight and she strongly reminded Private of a huge seel. Little did he know, that was also what the rest of the class thought. Private had paired himself with Skipper and they both started talking about the intercepted mail. Nearby, Kowalski was paired with Julien and was having his ears talked off. Rico, who had been paired with Marlene, was listening as Marlene talked about Rachel's apparent crush on Mort. Behind Kowalski, Doris was chatting with an annoyingly short-sighted teen named, Sean Parks. Sean didn't talk much, but when he did talk he would always never understand the team's jokes and signs. He would just make your head ache because he would almost answer every question with another question.

As the substitute walked around the room glaring at the students, she let her thin and pale lips curl into a sneer. Finally she stopped in front of Marlene and Rico.

"Well? I thought this was Psychology, not a gossip session!" The ugly teacher said sarcastically and glared at Marlene with icy eyes.

"S-sorry." Marlene stuttered out, surprising the entire class. Marlene had never stuttered before, so this was an unwelcome surprise.

"You should be. As I am sure all of you know, my name is Rhonda Seelo." The teacher said as she surveyed the class with cool and calculating eyes. A deep dark feeling crept out of the pit of Private's stomach, and Private knew the feeling all to well. Whenever he got this feeling about someone, they would either attempt to kill Private and his friends or end up dead. Half way through the class, Private had a bad headache and he honestly felt like jumping on the middle aged women and attacking her. It was finally the end of class and everyone was already headed to Art. Accidentally, Private spilled out his entire bad onto the floor and had to pick it up. Skipper had stayed behind to help Private clear up. It was then that something strange had happened.

Sam and Rhonda were standing near the windows talking quietly but all too clearly. They both hadn't noticed that the two agents hadn't left yet and were in deep conversation.

"You intercepted his mail and told him!" Rhonda hissed at the other teacher in anger. Sam's large green eyes shone with guilt, but also in anger.

"I had to tell him. What we are doing is wrong." Sam had snapped back in response.

"I don't care if you think its wrong, Agent 9!" Rhonda growled at Sam fiercely as Sam stepped back in fear.

"Agent 11, I c-can't do this." Sam stuttered out as he hung his head low. It was at that moment that Private and Skipper rushed out of the room and ran to Art at top speed. What had they just heard? A thousand thoughts flew through Private's mind as he sat down next to Rico. Art passed by in a blur, the entire class was free drawing because Miss Fairheart was getting rather stressed.

'_What was that conversation between Sam and Rhonda? Could they be agents for Dr. Blowhole?' _Private thought worriedly to himself as the bell rang and everyone pilled out of the class room.

Later that night, after dinner, Private and Skipper told Rico and Kowalski about what they had heard. Skipper was convinced that it was Dr. Blowhole, an old arch nemesis.

"Kowalski, options on what we should do with the sub and English teacher." Skipper ordered Kowalski as the intellectual scribbled feverishly in his notebook. Rico had ran to his and Kowalski's room and returned a stick of unlighted dynamite in his hands. Private sighed and leaned back in his chair in an exhausted mess. He was very tired and it was only 10:00 pm. Yawning tiredly, he excused himself and walked to his and Skipper's room. He changed into his pyjamas and curled up under the covers. He day dreamed for a while before letting his day dreams and sub conscious mind mingle together before finally slipping into darkness.

_Private's eyes flickered open and glanced down at himself. He was chained to a wall in the same room wearing nothing but jeans and boxers underneath. The light around the room was dim with artificial light from a small reading lamp that was positioned on the other side of the room. Shadows danced around the dim room and another light was turned on outside of the room. The door was slowly opening and there stood a silhouette of a man. The man walked into the room with slow deliberate steps until he finally stopped in front of the chained teen. Finally Private recognised the man with a muffled gasp. Sam was standing in front of him holding a knife to Private neck. Crimson blood dribbled from the shallow wound on Private's neck as Sam pressed the knife tighter. Sam's big green eyes were cold and expressionless and his hair was flattened to his head. A cold and cruel smile stretched it's was across Sam's face._

"_You like that, huh?" The man said with a teasing smile as Private gasped in pain. Private felt Sam slap him across the face, and he turned his face back to the man. _

"_You will answer when spoken to, bitch!" Sam suddenly yelled, the room echoing his shout._

"_Where is he? Where is Skipper?" Sam yelled as he pressed the knife even deeper. Private couldn't speak as the shallow wound dug even deeper. _

_It was then that Sam stopped and the room suddenly faded into darkness. _

Private opened his eyes to Skipper waking him up. Skipper's eyes, however, were wide with concern.

"Are you okay, Private?" The leader asked worriedly, his dark sapphire blue eyes narrowing in concern. Truly, Private felt fine and ready for the new day. They both got ready for school in record time and made breakfast for Rico and Kowalski. They all had cereal, toast, fruit and juice. Kowalski was attempting to read a poem and trying to translate it and Rico was mumbling single words to himself. When everyone left for school they were all ready to start the day, except for Private. He really didn't want to see Sam after the nightmare he had last night. Skipper and the others hadn't really noticed.

The bus ride to school was un-eventful and he just listened to his ipod and wrote poetry in a small notebook. Skipper had asked to listen again and Private was all too happy to let him listen. When everyone arrived at school it was 5 minutes before the bell so everyone just walked to class. Finally Sam was going to let everyone write their own poetry. After the bell went, Sam talked for a while about what things everyone should write. Sam said that the class should start on animal poetry. Private smiled and the perfect poem came to mind.

_The Dove is beautiful, pure and white_

_The Fox is as dark as the shadows of the night_

_They are both different but very alike._

_Like yin and yang they fit together _

_They declare their undying love forever and ever._

_The Dove is of infinity wonders and beauty divine._

_The Fox gazes at the Dove and says she's all mine._

_Being in love is not all it's cracked up to be_

_The Dove says all that matters is just you and me._

When Private finished his work he, lean back in his chair and relaxed until the end of the lesson. When the bell rang Private ripped the page out of his notebook and quickly wrote a title before putting his name on it and handing it to the teacher. Sam picked up the paper and read it intently with wide eyes. He gazed up and around the classroom to see nothing but an empty classroom. Private was already walking to his next class. As he walked to Maths with a smile on his face, Private knew he had to tell Skipper and the others about these strange dreams. The dreams could be a warning about what will happen in the near future, or something strangle like that. What Private didn't know the worst was still yet to come.

* * *

_Now we wait  
And try to find another mistake  
If you throw it all away then maybe you can change your mind  
You can run  
And when everything is over and done  
You can shine a little light on everything around you  
Man it's good to be someone _

_~Someday by Rob Thomas_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

The plot is thickening, everyone. Just watch out for Sam, guys.

Private's poem in this chapter was written by me two years ago.

Well, I have Gymnastics soon. I'll start my work on chapter 8 as soon as I can.

From,

Lina Ben_  
_


	8. Chapter 8: Disturbia

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I just want to say, Happy Halloween my friends! Please eat all of your candy responsibly and try not to get sugar highs.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does.

I don't own any other TV show, movie or books mentioned in this chapter.

I don't own "Disturbia" by Rhianna.

Chapter 8: Disturbia

* * *

_It's a thief in the night  
To come and grab you  
It can creep up inside you  
And consume you  
A disease of the mind  
It can control you  
It's too close for comfort_

_~Disturbia by Rhianna_

* * *

It was finally Halloween night, the night that Private had been waiting for. Zoolander Heights High was hosting a Halloween party for everyone, to most likely minimize the number of police calls for immature pranks and whatnot. Only it wasn't night just yet, it was only about 5:00 pm. The four agents sat on the couch in the lounge room of their apartment, being de-briefed on a recent mission. The four teens were crowded around Private's cell phone watching the screen intently as Perry, Private's older brother, de-briefed them. After the de-briefing, Skipper and Rico walked to the kitchen to make dinner for everyone. Kowalski and Private watched TV for a while before switching it off when Skipper called Kowalski and Private to dinner.

"So, Skippah, who are you going as?" Private asked his leader politely, biting into his tuna sushi. Skipper merely smirked as he ate; Private definitely wasn't going to get any information out of Skipper that night.

After dinner, Private and Skipper were in their room getting ready for the night. Private had changed into dark blue jeans, a white button up shirt, a black silk blazer and Perry's old black lace up shoes. He was going as Anthony DiNozzo from the TV show NCIS. Nearby, Skipper was slicking his flat black hair with hair gel and practicing his most suave looks in the mirror. After much prodding and puppy dog looks, Private had finally gotten Skipper to tell him who he was going as. Skipper was going as James Bond from the James Bond movies. Skipper was wearing black pants, a black blazer, a white button up shirt and dark shoes. After Skipper and Private finished getting ready they walked out of their shared bedroom and into the main room of the apartment. When pair spotted Rico and Kowalski, they burst out laughing. Kowalski and Rico had apparently decided to go as two sides of a horse. Rico was the head and Kowalski was the butt.

"Why do I have to the butt?" Kowalski complained irritably to Rico who smirked. Rico hadn't put on the horse head yet and Kowalski was glaring at the other teen.

"Drew straws." Rico grunted with a grin that made Private and Skipper smile.

Finally it was time to leave. The four agents walked out of the apartment block and caught up with a large group that consisted of their friends. Marlene and Rachel had decided to go as otters. Marlene's otter costume had brown fur with a white muzzle and belly and Rachel's costume had light brown fur and a white face, belly and paws. Julien, Maurice and Mort were dressed up as lemurs. Julien and Maurice's fur colours were the same but Julien had a long ring-tail and Mort was small and brown. Samantha and Hailey were wearing jeans and Team Edward and Team Jacob t-shirts. Doris and Ariel had dressed up as Mermaids with sparkly tails. Max and Rodger had dressed up as a cat and an alligator, respectively. Mason and Phil had dressed up as monkeys, strangely enough. The other seniors had already walked ahead it Private knew it was going to be a good night.

When the group arrived at the school the walked through the doors of the school gym and found themselves in a completely different world. The atmosphere had shifted from a cool fresh breeze that was blowing on them before to the humid warm enclosed room that was the school gym. The gym had been decorated with fake cobwebs, plastic spiders, orange pumpkins, dusty grey skeletons among other typical Halloween decorations. In the middle of the indoor basketball court colourful splashes of bold lights danced on the floor covering costumed students. Near by the snack table on the bleachers sat what looked like a Greek Goddess. She had blonde hair that spilled out over her shoulders like ink on paper with delicate blue eyes that shone brightly with exhilarating pleasure. She was wearing a creamy white gown with short sleeves. It was then that Private had recognised her; it was his Psychology teacher Miss Tolhurst. Tapping the James Bond look-a-like on the shoulder, Private pointed out Miss Tolhurst to Skipper, whose mouth fell open and his dark sapphire blue eyes widening. Kowalski and Rico had joined their shared costume together and promptly trotted of to the snack table to get something to eat.

The dance was supposed to be going on to 9:30, and it was only nearly 7:00. Private wondered the dancing crowd with Skipper holding his hand, waving to people he knew. The music had shifted from something calm to something up-beat but careful. It was then that Private had felt a shiver crawl down his spine.

'_Something is watching us.' _Private thought with a worried glance at Skipper. Skipper had stopped dancing when Private had sent him that worried glance. Private let go of his leader's hands and saw that Skipper had crossed two of his fingers together on his left hand. This special sign meant 'secure the perimeter' in Skipper's list of signs. Nodding once to his leader, Private slipped his hand back into his leader's and started walking swiftly to the bleachers to do an Ariel Recon. Everything seemed fine in the Gym, but a suspicious cluster of shadows were moving in a very odd way in the corner of the Gym near the exit. Something was going on outside and the two agents knew it. Over the loud bass of the ear-pounding music, Skipper grabbed Private hand again and the pair sprinted out the room, weaving in between the dancing students.

The full moon glow outside of the school gym made the grass and weeping willow tree sharp and edgy. The stars glittered high above in the night sky as a young woman was pressed against the willow tree by two others. The Greek Goddess was moaning as a small dagger carved into her skin, drawing blood and staining her blonde hair. Nicole cried out, wasn't anyone going to save her? The two assailants were in fact two teachers, Ms. Seelo and Mr. Fredrick. Nicole had recognised the two teachers by their tones of voices. Nicole moaned in pain and whimpered again and suddenly stopped when two 16 year old boys had burst through the doors of the Gym in battle stances. Private took on the young male dressed in all black and quickly knocked the male flat on his back. Skipper took on the other chubby female and delivered a swift karate chop to the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious.

After ten minutes, the police and an ambulance arrived on the scene and students had pooled out of the Gym wanting to see what was going on. The police were taking Miss Tolhurst's witness account and were just about to question Skipper and Private. Unfortunately, the two masked assailants had disappeared when the sirens of the police had sounded and now there was no evidence except for the wound on Miss Tolhurst's neck and a knife the assailants left behind. This got Private thinking.

'_A bit sloppy for two masked assailants.' _Private thought as the scene was taped with crime scene tape. Rapidly, Skipper and Private told the police what had happened and how that they were Force Agents. The authority officers then told the two agents that they would call if there were any problems. After leaving the scene, Private and Skipper walked home together deep in thought. Kowalski and Rico were already at home because they had walked home earlier. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Skipper slipped an arm around Private's loosely held arm and gave a tired sigh.

"It's been a long night." Skipper said his eyes wary with tiredness. Private nodded and glanced his ice blue eyes towards his tired leader.

Slowly, but clearly Skipper walked closer and fell into step with Private. He then gently leaned his head on Private's shoulder.

'_He must be really tired' _Private thought with a half smile, and somehow he also knew Skipper was smiling to.

"You know, you really had my back when we took on those…" Skipper started saying but then trailed off, a sure sign that he was tired. Private merely gripped Skipper's arm tighter with a sigh. He would always have his leader's back. The pair arrived at the apartment block about ten minutes later and flopped down onto the sofa where Rico and Kowalski were watching a scary movie. When Private started to feel his eyes droop, he knew it was time to go to sleep. Slowly he got up, Skipper following him, and walked to his room, pulling off his clothes and changing into his pyjamas. Skipper did the same, stripping down to a loose pair of jeans with boxers underneath. Private felt his eyes close merely seconds after falling to the pillow and welcomed the darkness that came.

_The darkness didn't last long. Private soon opened his eyes and found himself in the same dimmed room as before, in his last two dreams. The shadows danced like ballerinas across the room and Private heard moving and murmuring outside of the room. He found himself chained to the wall in dark blue jeans with boxers underneath as before and he felt unimaginable anger boiling deep inside of him. A slight twinge of fear crawled effortlessly down his spine as he saw the door on the far side of the room open and light pooled in. It was a man, his body cast in shadows. The man walked up to him, and Private instinctively flinched away. The man leaned close and whispered the team law._

"_Never walk alone…" The man whispered in a deep familiar voice that made Private wince. The man leaned back and slapped Private hard across the face. Private felt the pain and gave a small whimper. Lights flickered on and Private recognised the man. It was Sam again and he looked rather strange. He had a small twisted smile on his face that made Private flinch again._

_The man walked away from Private and paced the room for a while. Suddenly a dagger was pressed to the small teen's neck and Private cried out. He felt helpless as the dagger carved a single letter into Private neck. The letter 'S' was extremely visible in the light and Private felt like he wanted to cry. Then, rapidly Sam was sprawled on the ground and the dagger flew across the room and landed near the window, blood shimmering on the blade. Private glanced up and gasped in shock. He found himself gazing straight into the dark sapphire blue eyes of his leader. It was then that the dream faded into darkness again._

Private's eyes flickered open and quickly got up, changed and walked to the kitchen to make breakfast. Fifteen minutes later, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico joined him and Private made pancakes for everyone. The front door opened quickly and in came Julien, Maurice and Mort.

"Hello, my loyal subjects!" The self-proclaimed king called to the four agents while Mort giggled happily.

"Morning, Ring-tail." Skipper grunted into his coffee, with a smile. However, Julien didn't seem to hear the nick-name Skipper had dubbed him. Private smiled and waved to Julien.

"Hello, Julien." Private greeted Julien with a smile and Mort gave a shrill giggle. Kowalski and Rico glanced up from their food and smiled to the three next-door-neighbours. Then, without a word the self-proclaimed king left with his two subjects following behind him.

'_That was strange.' _Private thought to himself, wondering what was going on with the next-door-neighbours.

After breakfast Private and Kowalski went to do homework while Skipper trained Rico. The homework was quite easy to do and Private was finished in no time, but Private was focused on something entirely different. The dreams, what were these strange dreams Private was having. Were they the consequence of eating straight before bed or something different? Private didn't bother searching up on the internet about these dreams, because he knew it would only get him no-where. By lunchtime, Skipper had made sandwiches for everyone and the four friends sat down to lunch. As Private munched into his sandwich, he noticed Skipper giving him strange and worried glances.

'_Maybe he found out about the dreams.'_ Private thought worriedly as he glanced down at his sandwich. Lunch didn't go for very long and after lunch, Private and Kowalski trained with Skipper on the roof of the building.

That night Private was worried that he was going to have another dream. He knew soon that he was going have to tell Skipper and the others but Private was worried about the strange dreams. Did they mean something? Were they something that was going to happen? For these questions Private didn't know, and probably didn't want to know. As he fell asleep that night, his last thought was that he was going have to the other three agents sooner or alter. Disturbia might be the same as paranoia, but Private knew it was something a lot darker.

* * *

_Faded pictures on the wall  
It's like they talkin' to me  
Disconnectin' your call  
Your phone don't even ring  
I gotta get out  
Or figure this shit out  
It's too close for comfort_

_~Disturbia by Rhianna_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

The plot is thickening, everyone. Just watch out for Sam, guys.

I actually have planned the rest of Red Dawn and the start of Red Moon, its sequel.

Well, I have Gymnastics soon. I'll work on chapter 9 soon; you might even see a familiar Michael Jackson song!

Happy Halloween!

From,

Lina Ben _  
_


	9. Chapter 9: Beat It

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the TV show Lie To Me.

I don't own "Beat It" By Michael Jackson

Chapter 9: Beat It

* * *

_They're out to get you, better leave while you can  
Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man  
Yeah,  
You wanna stay alive, better do what you can  
So beat it! (Beat it!) Just beat it! (Beat it!)_

_~Beat It by Michael Jackson_

* * *

On the first Friday after the Halloween party at the school, Private sat in English with a bored sigh. There was a substitute teacher there today and Private was bored. He glanced at Skipper with a worried expression. Skipper had his head down, completely concentrating on his work. The class was told to write a poem about one person in the class. Kowalski was writing his poem on Rico, Rico was writing his on Julien and Private was writing his on Skipper. With a long sigh, Private pressed the tip of the pen to the paper and began to write.

_His eyes are an endless blue that glow in the night,_

_But shine in the early morning light._

_His heart beats as bravely as any solider,_

_Then why do his eyes seem to smoulder?_

_Those dark sapphires looking straight at me,_

_Does he like what everyone else sees?_

Growling in annoyance, Private stopped writing and ended the poem there. He glanced around the room. Kowalski was crossing out his poem with the pencil he was using and Rico was now doodling in the space bellow the poem he had written. 10 minutes later the bell finally rang and everyone walked off to Maths.

"Did everyone do their poems?" Came a deep voice from behind Private, Kowalski and Rico. It was their leader, Skipper. Kowalski nodded silently and Rico's head bobbed up and down with his usual manic grin. Private smiled at his leader and nodded.

"Good. I want the best grades from all of you this term." Skipper said encouragingly his lips twisting into his usual cocky smirk. The rest of the walk to the team's next class was a bit quieter after that.

Maths passed by in a blur. Everyone got back their marks from their recent test. Private peeked at his mark and sighed in relief. His mark was 98% and a solid A. Skipper took one look at his marks and gave a growl, he had gotten a 75%. Rico had gotten 80% and Kowalski had gotten 95%. They then sat a test that was one the work everyone was recently doing. The test wasn't that hard, what was hard was the wait after the test because Private and Kowalski had finished early. Private had turned on his ipod and listened to a Michael Jackson song. The song was good but it really made Private think about Sam, his strange English teacher. Maybe what he had heard was right, maybe Sam was an agent for Dr. Blowhole. The English teacher and Rhonda Seelo were definitely planning something, though.

Recess was a lot more relaxing when it came, the cool air blowing around Private and the other three agents under their spot under the cherry blossom tree. The cherry blossom sprinkled down, soft as snow but as gentle as rain as the cool wind blew. Private smiled and quickly got out his sketch book from Art and began to sketch the scene around them. It was a rough sketch at first but became something more and more when Private started adding colour to his picture. By the time Recess was over, Private had finished his picture. He hadn't shown anyone yet and wanted to keep it a surprise for the others. He could sneak away from his team-mates tonight, get it framed and be back without anyone knowing. As he walked to Music with Skipper and Rico, he smiled a secretive smile.

Music and Integrated Science passed by quickly for Private. In Music everyone was playing instruments and singing songs and laughing. They were all singing and playing different songs and the hour flew by quickly. In Integrated Science, Private was paired with Kowalski and Doris and they were doing their Forensic Science final exam. Investigating the fake crime scene, processing the evidence, figuring out who was the killer and determining why he or she did it and when. Lunch was fun, Kowalski was still gushing from the final exam and Skipper was getting more and more annoyed by the minute. Finally the cool calm and collected leader snapped, and it was not a pretty sight.

"Kowalski shut the hell up! We get it that you and Private aced the exam with that girl. You don't need to go on and on about it." Skipper snapped to the intellectual who went quiet in Skipper's sudden rant. Rico growled at his leader and put a comforting hand on Kowalski's shoulder. After a few minutes of awkward silence Skipper and Kowalski suddenly burst out in garbled apologies. Private smiled gently, the minutes of silence felt like hours to the team. Rico smiled and grabbed Skipper and Kowalski's hands and quickly slid Kowalski's hand into Skipper's.

In Psychology, Private was excited to learn that after Spring Break they would start learning about applied psychology, more specifically criminal psychology and the work on Dr. Elkman. Luckily nearly everyone had already finished their work on basic psychology so this news got the class really excited for after Spring Break. Miss Tolhurst had luckily gotten a rather shallow wound from being held a knife point on the night of the Halloween party so she hadn't gotten any stiches luckily. Skipper and Private sat on one of the couches together exchanging jokes and smiles as they worked. When Miss Tolhurst walked up to them, Private stopped talking and the two glanced up to meet her warm gaze. She smiled the smile lighting up her face like a light bulb.

"Thank you for saving me, guys. I really appreciate what you did." The teacher thanked the two teens with a grin before turning around and walking to another pair.

After the bell rang for 6th Period, Private had accidentally dropped half on his books on the floor and had to pick them up again. Picking up his belongings, Private glanced up and saw that Sam had entered the room. Miss Tolhurst had gotten up from her chair and greeted him with a tight smile.

"Well, hello there Sam." She said in an even and calm voice. It was as if she was hiding something from the other teacher. Hanging back to eavesdrop, Private inhaled three sharp breaths.

"Shut it, bitch. Where are Percy and Seth?" Sam said flatly, his voice just tinted with a sharp edge. Motioning Private to get behind the desk, Miss Tolhurst chuckled.

"They left for their next class a few minutes ago." Miss Tolhurst almost sang with a small giggle at the end. Her eyes seemed to glimmer with fake cheerfulness, underlined with guarded emotions. Quickly grabbing his bag, Private crawled out the room and sprinted to Art.

Quickly flopping down on his seat next to Skipper after excusing himself for being late, Private gave a shaky sigh. He had quickly re-capped what he had heard to his friends ending the conversation with another shaky sigh. Skipper didn't seem all to shocked, after putting two and two together Skipper had figured out that it was indeed Sam and Rhonda Seelo that had attacked Miss Tolhurst.

'_Was the attack provoked?' _Private asked himself as he speedily completed his Art essay that was due after Spring Break. Skipper seemed to be thinking along the same lines as him and suggested that it could have been provoked but he didn't know what Miss Tolhurst might have done to set Sam and Rhonda Seelo off. This entire situation was strange and weird and Private was starting to suffocate from the confusion of the whole problem. A sudden realisation git him like a brick wall.

'_Is Miss Tolhurst being targeted because of us?' _Private thought suddenly nearly jumping out of his seat in shock. Private knew he and the team probably had a long list of bad guys they had pissed off with Skipper's going way back to when he was at least 12 years old. There was something in that theory that made Private shudder.

When the bell rang that signalled the end of school Private couldn't be more relieved. It was finally the end of a long and hard week and Private was excited for the coming weekend. Tonight he was going to get his sketch he did at recess framed so that he could surprise his friends. Quickly racing out the school and down the street, he snuck away from his friends. He it took him two hours to reach the framing shop on foot and he had to wait another hour, waiting for the picture to get framed. At 6:30 pm, Private called a cab to get back to Zoolander Heights. As he walked to the place where he said he would meet the cab he felt as if someone was watching him. A shadow moved across the road and Private swiftly zipped open his backpack, tucked the framed picture inside and pulled out a small stun gun that he kept with him at all times. Another shadow sped its way across the road and Private sprinted into an alleyway. Probably not the best idea in this situation, but Private pushed those thoughts from his mind easily.

As swift as the breeze blowing around the small teen, he was pinned against the wall by three masked assailants. One was rather chubby and familiar hair was sticking outside of the mask that nearly made Private collapse, it was Rhonda Seelo. The next person was quite tall but the way he held himself was awfully familiar. The last person, a tall male laughed cruelly but he was quite similar to the other man. A hard punch landed on the side of Private's face, and the teen flinched and fell back against the wall. Another punch was landed, this time in the small teen's gut. There was a sudden kick to Private's shins and he felt himself grow weaker and weaker, unable to hold onto the small stun gun any longer. The gun fell with a sharp clatter when it reached the ground and the gun went off. It latched itself onto the small male assailant's leg and shocked him with a non-fatal shock. The gun went off again and this time it landed on Private's leg and shocked him with a painfully sharp current of electricity.

"Skippah!" Private instinctively yelled his leader's name, even though he knew Skipper couldn't hear him. It was then that darkness clouded the teen's vision, and he welcomed the darkness that came painlessly.

Private's eyes flickered open and he found himself in a familiar room, but this time he knew he was in here for real. He wasn't chained and he found that whoever did this to him had stripped him down to his snow white boxers and left a pair of loose baggy jeans by the door. Scratches and bruises covered the light blue eyed teen's body and all of Private's muscles ached in pain. Slowly, Private got up to his feet and walked with deliberate steps to the door. He grabbed the pair of jeans and pulled them on, zipping up the zip. Quickly, he then sat back down and leaned against the wall. Now that he thought about it, maybe the dreams he had of this place, maybe they were visions of the future. He glanced around the room, the small window was still in the high corner of the room and enough light bled into the room for Private to see. Shadows danced around the room in an all too familiar way and noises were heard outside the door. Private closed his eyes and fell limp against the wall, pretending to still be unconscious. It worked, luckily and Private felt himself being dragged to the centre of the room and felt himself being cuffed and chained.

'_I gotta see Skippah; I gotta tell him where I am…'_ Was Private's last coherent thought before he fell into the same warm darkness again.

Private had somehow gotten his wish, and when he opened his eyes he found himself in his and Skipper's shared room. Skipper was asleep, but his face was screwed up in pain and anguish. Those dark sapphire blue eyes finally opened and he gasped when he saw Private.

"Private! You're here! How did you-? Where are you? Kowalski couldn't track you. All we found was your backpack with a smashed frame." Skipper garbled out, his eyes shining with worry and concern for his smallest team-mate.

"Don't worry, you're still dreaming. I was ambushed and attacked by some familiar friends of ours." Private said smoothly even though he felt horrible. His leader shot out of bed and tried to grab his backpack, only to phase right though it. Skipper gasped and turned to face Private, his eyes a lot calmer than before.

"Where are you?" Skipper asked calmly, breathing deeply.

"I'm being held hostage somewhere. I saw a sign outside the window before. It said 'Nightingale Motel'; do you think you can find me Skipper?" Private told his leader quickly before closing his eyes again and finding himself back in the room. What Private didn't hear was

"I'll find you Private, no matter what." Skipper had whispered before waking up in his room.

Even though Private was captured, he did prove that he was indeed a man in the fight by backing down when he needed to and never losing hope.

* * *

_You have to show them that you're really not scared  
You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare  
They'll kick you, then they beat you,  
Then they'll tell you it's fair  
So beat it (Beat it), but you wanna be bad_

_~Beat It by Michael Jackson_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

The plot is thickening, everyone. Just watch out for Sam, guys.

I actually have planned the rest of Red Dawn and the start of Red Moon, its sequel.

I just finished watching "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and it is still bloody awesome! I love the movie! This movie will once again get a mention, but in the last chapter.

I chose this song for the chapter because my old coach is teaching a routine in Gymnastics to the level sixes to this song. We are doing Michael Jackson for the display.

See ya,

Lina Ben, _  
_


	10. Chapter 10: New Moon Rising

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does.

I don't own "New Moon Rising" by Wolfmother.

Chapter 10: New Moon Rising

* * *

_And the fields are turning  
And the temperature is rising  
See the factories are burning  
When the wheels keep turning  
~New Moon Rising by Wolfmother_

* * *

Private's eyes flickered open and he found himself chained to the wall. Shadows danced across the dimmed room and there were noises outside of the room Private was chained in. Something was going to happen and Private was sure that it was something bad. In the far high corner of the room outside a small window the breeze blowed gently, feeling cool on Private's face. Remembering his dream, Private glanced around the room until he found it, the small reading lamp. Shadow danced around the room in an all too familiar way and Private was overwhelmed with the strange feeling that was déjàvu. His dream was about to happen and Private knew danced around the dim room and another light was turned on outside of the room. The door was slowly opening and there stood a silhouette of a man. The man walked into the room with slow deliberate steps until he finally stopped in front of the chained teen. Finally Private recognised the man with a muffled gasp. Sam was standing in front of him holding a knife to Private neck. Crimson blood dribbled from the shallow wound on Private's neck as Sam pressed the knife tighter. Sam's big green eyes were cold and expressionless and his hair was flattened to his head. A cold and cruel smile stretched it's was across Sam's face.

"You like that, huh?" The man said with a teasing smile as Private gasped in pain. Private felt Sam slap him across the face, and he turned his face back to the man.

"You will answer when spoken to, bitch!" Sam suddenly yelled, the room echoing his shout.

"Where is he? Where is Skipper?" Sam yelled as he pressed the knife even deeper. Private couldn't speak as the shallow wound dug even deeper.

"I know you dreamed about him, Private. You told him where you were." Sam growled, suddenly dropping the knife. The knife dropped to the ground silently, it's blade dark and glittering with crimson red blood. Private felt warmth ooze down his neck and when he glanced down he saw blood oozing from his neck wound. The door suddenly opened again and a taller man walked through. He looked a lot like Sam, only older and his eyes were hazel instead of green. It was when he spoke that Private had recognised him.

"Hello, Private. How is Skipper?" It was Dr. Blowhole, and enemy of Skipper that Skipper sent to prison when he first started as a Force private. Private merely growled at the two men, his eyes darkening in anger.

"My son captured you, you know." Dr. Blowhole said with a sneer as he placed a hand on Sam's shoulder. It was then that Private realized. Sam was Dr. Blowhole's son! It was no wonder that Skipper didn't trust the guy because Sam resembled his father in nearly every way.

"Sam infiltrated the school at the start of your junior year as did Rhonda. But there was a problem, you see, an under cover Force agent was tailing him, trying to figure out who he was. Her agent name is Nicole the Nightingale, but you may know her as Miss Tolhurst." The taller man said with a sigh, while Private gasped. Miss Tolhurst had lied to them? Private moaned as Dr. Blowhole leaned in close to the small teen. The tall man's cool hazel eyes stared into his big light blue ones as Dr. Blowhole pressed his lips close to Private's ear.

'_Please, please, please, please, please…' _Private whimpered in his mind as the doctor breathed gently against his ear.

"And now, Private, you are _mine…" _The man whispered, putting emphasis one the last word, drawing it out. Then darkness welcomed Private into its arms and Private only saw black.

Speeding down the highway at 12:00 pm at night was not a fun time for Skipper, Kowalski and Rico. After Skipper had woken up he had ran to Kowalski and Rico's room, woke them up and told them where Private was. They took a short time getting dressed and geared up and after a steaming cup of coffee everyone was ready to go. Rico had packed all of the weapons they would need and Kowalski had packed a first aid kit.

"We ready team?" Skipper asked his two team-mates who both nodded. Skipper was only less than ready. He wasn't ready to face down kidnappers and he certainly wasn't ready for what was to come. Arriving at the Nightingale Hotel was easier than expected, but Skipper knew they must have security near the abandoned hotel. Rico handed Kowalski and Skipper their favourite weapons when the car parked. Kowalski had his phaser pistol, which shot bright beams of light that could blind, paralyse and blow to pieces all at once. Skipper had his favourite Force issued gun that had a fish engraved on it. Meanwhile, Rico had a stick of dynamite in his hand. They quickly put on their ear wigs and microphones before smiling weakly at each other. Nodding once to his team-mates, Skipper got out of the car, followed by Rico and Kowalski.

Rico distracted the guards while, Kowalski and Skipper delivered swift karate chops to the back of the guard and rendered them unconscious. They snuck inside stealthily and hid behind the plants in the foyager. The room itself looked crappy and old and Skipper was pretty sure that a few years ago strippers and whores worked here. Suddenly three agents walked in talking loudly.

"So who is that kid the boss has got locked up?" The tallest one asked the two shorter males.

"A kid from some team that got the boss locked up a few years ago. I think he's Perry the Platypus's younger brother." The shortest guy answered with an annoyed growl.

"Kinda small if you ask me. I've seen smaller though." The middle sized guy chipped in. The three guys then walked out of the room laughing about what they were now talking about.

"Ready?" Skipper whispered into his mouthpiece, gazing at the two other teens across the room. Nodding to their leader, Rico and Kowalski disappeared from the room hot on Skipper's heels.

'_This darkness is starting to get annoying.' _Private thought, gazing at the darkness he was in. He was still knocked out and he was getting bored of it. So to pass the time he daydreamed, the thoughts lighting up the darkness with colour and sharp clarity. He thought about Miss Tolhurst, otherwise known as Nicole the Nightingale. He felt angry and betrayed that Miss Tolhurst had lied to him, had lied to everyone. He felt sad the she couldn't tell him or the others who she was. Suddenly the daydreams stopped and his eyes opened, realizing he was still in the same room as before still chained to the wall. He felt the breeze on his bare chest and when he turned his head he saw the door was open and light was flooding into the room. Sam and Dr. Blowhole stood at the door, similar and identical smirks on their faces. Private closed his eyes again and made his body go limp, faking unconsciousness. They promptly left the room when they saw their captive still unconscious. The light faded from the room and the moonlight and shadow returned. Then Private felt a strange chill crawl up his spine and the young teen got a feeling that Skipper, Kowalski and Rico were here, somewhere…

Racing through the series of mazes in the building, the three teens stuck together like glue on just about everything. They kept close enough to each other as they paced themselves through the maze or rooms. Suddenly, two agents jumped out behind the three Force agents and Skipper quickly sent the agents sprawling. Rico grabbed Skipper and Kowalski's wrists and led them down the hall. Rico was sniffing and tasting the air, much like a cat hot on the trail of Private's familiar scent. Yanking open random doors, Rico growled in desperation. Kowalski was relying on a series of elimination to find Private and Skipper as getting even more annoyed. Finally reaching a smaller room, Skipper forcefully kicked down the door and found Private chained to a wall. Private's eyes flickered open and he found himself gazing into the familiar dark sapphire blue eyes of his leader.

'_Am I dreaming?' _The bewildered young teen asked himself as he felt Skipper picking the locks of his cuffs and Kowalski wiping away the dry blood with a damp cloth. Rico was merely grinning his famous maniacal grin and he was helping Kowalski clean the cuts on the young teen's skin.

A loud alert sounded suddenly and the four teens jumped in surprise. _Click! _The cuffs had come off and had dropped to the ground. The four promptly left the room to race out of the building but were soon cornered by about ten muscly guards, Sam and Dr. Blowhole.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Skipper, the mere teenager that landed me in jail." The doctor said with a deep voice and a smile that promised pain. Sam laughed cruelly and a few of the guard echoed him.

"Dr. Blowhole?" Skipper gasped in shock but the narrowed his eyes. If glares could kill, Dr. Blowhole would be dead nearly a thousand times over.

"Skipper, it is so good to see you. I haven't seen you since I tried to block out the sun all of those years ago." Dr. Blowhole sighed softly, gazing to one side as if reminiscing what had happened all of those years ago.

"Screw you." The leader growled at the evil doctor, Private shrinking to a safe position behind his leader's back.

Ignoring the growl from Skipper, Dr. Blowhole went on.

"How are Doris and Ariel?" The evil doctor said politely, as if he and Skipper were old friends and they were just catching up. Private began to shake violently and he whimpered from behind Skipper's back. Skipper put his arms back and wound them around his wounded solider, pulling Private toward his back protectively. Kowalski made a short gesture of annoyance and the mention of Doris and Ariel.

"None of your business." Skipper retorted in a sharp tone, his eyes narrowing as the guard closed in around the four Force agents tighter. Private knew that the guards were planning on attacking any minute know and he had an idea. Rico made a quick sudden move and the guards took out weapons from nearly every parts of their body and pointed their guns on the four teens.

'_Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it…' _Private thought, waiting for the right moment. As sudden as Rico's move earlier, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico drew their own weapons and their world exploded in chaos and gunshot sounds.

Ducking from the bullets, Private pressed himself against the ground as his friends fired and dodged bullets, punches and kicks thrown their way. Quickly, before Private even realised it a stray bullet hit something metal, bounced off and came flying at full speed towards Private. His body exploded in pain and Private had realized he had been shot. Blood oozed from a deep cut on Private's left shoulder and the young teen moaned in pain, whimpering for his leader. Before a minute had passed, Private felt strong arms scoop him up and carrying him out of the building before a bomb exploded. What followed was an earth shattering silence and a high pitch groan of metal falling and then, complete silence. When Private opened his eyes he saw Kowalski pressing a long piece of cloth to his shoulder, putting pressure on the wound to slow the blood that was oozing from the young teen's shoulder. Rico was putting bandaids on his face, neck and arms and Skipper was holding Private against his chest with a firm grip.

The ride to the hospital had been and excruciating one and Private felt Skipper hold his hand through out the entire trip. After they had all gotten out of the Nightingale Hotel in one piece (For Private, not so much) Kowalski had dialled 911 and told them what had happened. When they got to the hospital, Perry had been called and he was driving to New York as fast as he could. In the emergency room, Skipper had lot his patience three times so Kowalski filled out the paperwork. Rico was pacing nervously next to Private's bed by 2:00 am, Skipper sat in a chair next to Private's bed and Kowalski had went to get coffee. Half and hour later, the school principal had arrived and was being told the whole situation. Skipper had fallen asleep in his chair and Kowalski and Rico had fallen asleep on the bed next to Private's, Kowalski's head falling on Rico's chest. Private had fallen asleep around the time the school principal had arrived and willed himself to had pleasant dreams. Hie eyes closed and he let the warm darkness of sleep overwhelm him as he fell in sweet darkness.

A new moon had risen that night, a darkness that clouds Skipper's and his team's eyes as they worry about their youngest team-mate. Skipper knew Private would be okay and well soon. He just had to wait…

* * *

_Well, I've seen that you've grown now  
With the horses you ride  
Gonna have your say now  
See the new moon rising_

_~New Moon Rising by Wolfmother_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

That's the climax everyone, the next two chapters will be the resolution.

Red Moon is going to be very exciting and I have already planned the first two chapters. I can't reveal to much now, but our boys are going to have a fun spring break.

Next week, don't be surprised if the last two chapters come out early. I have finished all of my assignments and work for this year so I'm going to be bored for the next week.

See ya my friends,

Lina Ben


	11. Chapter 11: Leave Out All The Rest

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own NCIS. I don't own Phineas and Ferb.

I don't own "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" by Michael Bay.

I don't own Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane does.

I don't own "Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park

Chapter 11: Leave Out All The Rest

* * *

_Don't be afraid  
I've taken my beating  
I've shared what I made  
I'm strong on the surface  
Not all the way through  
I've never been perfect  
But neither have you_

_~Leave Out All The Rest by Linkin Park_

* * *

Private's eyes flickered open at around 10:00 am the next day. He felt so warm and relaxed that he just wanted to close his eyes and fall back asleep. He sat up carefully, avoiding putting weight on his left shoulder. He glanced around the small hospital room noticing that his team-mates were gone.

'_They must have gone to get something to eat.' _Private reasoned with himself, but he still felt anxious. Slowly he glanced down at his injured shoulder. It was bandaged, held in a sling and it smelled rather sterile. A clipboard was sitting on the bedside table. Private snatched it off the table and read through the notes. He found out that he had just been grazed by the bullet and not shot, but the wound was rather deep. The long slice on his neck was only very shallow and didn't need stiches luckily. He knew the bullet graze was going to turn into a scar, but he didn't mind. This proved that he was a warrior and a fighter. Private was just happy that he was alive, really. Getting shot was really scary. On the bedside table there was also two vases filled with flowers. One was filled with daisies and lavenders and had a card from Marlene and the other vase had orchids and wild flowers that made Private sneeze. He was pretty sure they were from Julien, Mort and Maurice.

A few minutes later the door opened and Skipper and Kowalski walked in with more cards and flowers in their arms. Private held back a laugh as Skipper promptly dropped his load and flung his arms around Private. The young teen felt his cheeks redden as Skipper whispered soft words over and over. Once he drew away he picked up the flowers and cards again and put them on a nearby table. After Kowalski put down his flowers and cards, he slowly walked over to Private and wrapped his arms around the smaller teen.

"We were so worried about you." Skipper had finally said, his eyes shining in concern.

"Did you call everyone, Skippah?" Private asked his leader, his voice soft with misuse. The leader nodded and sat down on Private's bed.

"Perry was so worried that he had to cancel a very important mission and drive all the way here." Skipper sighed, his eyes softening. Kowalski didn't say a word, which really surprised Private. The intellectual would always be talking and if anything back happened he would go really quiet.

"I'm sorry you got hurt, Private." The leader said with a sad smile. He hadn't meant for his team-mate to get hurt. Kowalski nodded from the wall he was leaning on.

"So when can I get discharged?" The small teen asked his leader casually, he really didn't want to stay in the hospital much longer.

"Sunday, 1000 hours." The leader answered crisply but he had a smile on his face. Kowalski rolled his eyes from his place on the wall, Skipper is being Skipper again.

"An entire day?" The small Force agent yelled. This was totally unfair.

"Yes, but Rico is getting some DVDs for us to watch. I think he got Family Guy and a few others." Skipper said firmly while Kowalski rolled his eyes again. Suddenly, the door opened again and a beautiful nurse with blonde hair and blue eyes walked in with a bed tray with food on it. Private hadn't realized he was hungry until that moment. He ate the toast in three massive bites and drank the apple juice within a few seconds.

"Slow down there, Private." Skipper said quietly and quickly smacked the back of Private's head after the nurse had left.

"Sorry, Skippah." Private said after he gulped down the rest of the apple juice.

Nearly three hours later Private got visitors. Marlene, Doris, Rachel and Hailey had brought Private more flowers, chocolates and cards and he even got some from the seniors and freshmen. When the girls had left, Rico had put on the Family Guy DVD. Everyone was in fits of laughter though out the entire 12 episodes. Finally at around 5:00 pm, Perry walked though the door and into Private's small hospital room and greeted his younger brother warmly.

"How are you feeling, Percy?" The older brother asked, his eyes filled with concern for his younger brother.

"Feeling a lot better than last night." Private answered honestly, his eyes downcast as he gazed anywhere else.

"Look, Private, I'm sorry for what happened between us. I've always wanted to be your brother, but around Dad I just didn't know how to act. I'm really sorry." Perry sighed, but Private smiled. Quickly slapping the back of his brother's head, Private glared at his brother playfully.

"Apologizing is a sign of weakness." Private quoted to his brother with a grin while Perry merely cracked up in laughter. Perry then tackled his brother and got him into a headlock quickly, and used his other arm to rub Private's head.

The door opened suddenly and Skipper, Rico and Kowalski got into battle stances gazing around the room for the trouble.

'_Now they come to rescue me…' _Private thought sarcastically to himself as Perry quickly let him go and put his hands into the air.

"Private, are you okay?" Kowalski asked the smaller teen worriedly while Skipper neared Perry.

"You were attacking Private!" Skipper accused the older agent angrily. Perry shook his head, to shocked to speak. Finally, Perry found his voice.

"No I wasn't! I was just teasing him. He quoted Gibbs from NCIS!" The older agent defended his earlier actions rather defensively.

'_He is really protective of me.' _Private noticed as Skipper growled lowly at his older brother.

About ten minutes later once everything was cleared up, Perry introduced himself. When he walked up to Skipper to shake his hand, the older agent frowned as he gazed at Skipper. His eyes darted to the side as if he was recalling a memory and finally his eyes widened.

"So you're Peter's younger brother." The older agent stated distastefully with an almost smug smirk.

'_Oh crap, this is very bad.' _Private thought worriedly as Perry gazed at Skipper, his eyes rolling up and down the leader's body in distain. Perry and Peter had a bad introduction to each other a few years ago when Perry found Peter battling Perry's nemesis (These were mostly assigned.) and things went incredibly downhill from there. Peter, who is also Skipper's older brother, was one and still is one of the best agents in the Force and Perry has been…well jealous.

Skipper was, however, confused when Perry had spoken that statement.

"How do you know that?" The leader asked carefully, his dark sapphire blue eyes shining with confusion.

"I met him a couple of years ago." Perry said sharply, he eyes wondering around the room in boredom. Skipper glared at the older agent for a few minutes before nodding. Perry turned to his younger brother and gave him a small smile.

"I called Dad and told him what happened. He said he was sorry that he couldn't be here and I called Sophie and she said to get better." Perry said quietly to his little brother before leaning down and hugging Private gently. Quickly giving his little brother a swift kiss on the forehead, he said goodbye and hurried out of the room. Private smiled and placed his right hand on his forehead, where Perry had kissed it. Suddenly another nurse walking into the room, holding yet another tray of food for Private. Private grinned and started eating his food more slowly, making sure to savour every bite. He and Skipper talked while he ate while Kowalski and Rico disappeared off somewhere.

After dinner the four agents watched the Family Guy DVD again and then they watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The movie was great and the four agents seemed to really enjoy it. It was 9:00 pm by the time Skipper, Kowalski and Rico went home but Private didn't mind, he was getting tired anyway. He lied down in bed for a while and read a book Skipper had gotten for him from the hospital gift shop. It was about Psychology and Private was very interested in it. After reading for about half an hour, Private put the book down and promptly fell asleep.

_When Private opened his eyes he didn't see a dark room, he saw bright and shining colours that made the small teen's head ache. Soft whispering voices surrounded Private, closing in on him gently, as if someone was hugging him. Suddenly the colours stopped and a small penguin with light blue eyes stood before him, its eyes shining in gratitude. Private stood there, confused as the penguin made several motions that it wanted to be picked up. Leaning down and pulling the penguin into his arms, Private began to feel strangely happier and more at piece. _

"_Hullo." A voice had spoken. Private glanced around the blackness, wondering where the voice had come from. He finally glanced down at the small penguin in his arms and gasped. The little bird had spoken to him! _

"_Did you just speak?" Private asked the penguin in his arms cautiously, still wondering if the penguin had spoken._

"_Yes, I did." The penguin answered, smiling at the teen. Thinking quietly to himself, Private hummed._

"_Who are you?" The young teen asked the little penguin, his eyes trying to focus on the black and white bird. _

"_I'm you." The penguin answered simply gazing up at Private with big eyes. Now Private was even more confused. _

"_From a different universe, a different world." The little penguin added, his British accent much thicker than Private's. Private just stared at the little penguin in awe. Could this flightless bird really be himself in another universe? _

"_In my world I am part of an elite penguin force and I live in a zoo with my team-mates. Skipper is the leader, Kowalski is the brains and Rico is the muscle and weapons." The penguin explained to the small teen. More and more colours flowed and circled around and formed shapes and Private realized that the animals looked very familiar. _

Private's eyes suddenly flickered open from his strange dream and he smiled, he liked the penguin in his dream. He checked the time on his watch that was sitting on the bedside table. It read 7:30 am so the sun was already up and shining. When the nurse walked in bringing breakfast for Private he asked her which day it was. It was Sunday the 8th of November. Private nodded and smiled sweetly at the nurse, asking for her to bring ice-cream later. The nurse merely gave him a sweet smile and walked off, so Private took that as a no. It was 8:00 by the time Skipper, Rico and Kowalski arrived at the hospital bringing a huge lollypop for Private.

'_Just two more hours!' _Private thought excitedly to himself as he watched Kowalski and Skipper play chess, a favourite past time for the four agents. Rico had gotten Private yet another book to read, but Private had read that book before.

Two hours had passed very slowly while Private and his friends waited for Private to be able to be discharged. The four agents passed the time by exchanging gossip about things happening in the Force. Apparently, the case of Private's kidnapping and torture had been passed on to the Force's top agents who happened to be Perry and Peter. Skipper had heard off of the Force's secret news channel from the new TV they had installed while Private was in hospital. Skipper had said that Perry threw quite the temper tantrum. Private laughed at this, he loved his brother but Perry could be a bit short tempered sometimes. Kowalski had invented a new laser cutter the night Private was kidnapped but it was stolen in the fight with Dr. Blowhole. Rico chatted quietly with Private and the small teen could understand nearly everything Rico was saying. Finally, Skipper had told everyone that they had to go to a classified city on spring break to do a series of undercover missions. Private and Rico were jumping out of their seats in excitement while Kowalski asked a dozen questions on where they were going but Skipper wanted that to remain a surprise for his team.

Overall, Private was incredibly strong about what had happened to him. He didn't have any traumas about the kidnapping, torture and bullet graze. He was just happy to be alive and not that hurt. He had taken the beating well and he knew what it was like to be afraid. Private just didn't want his team to fear for his safety, because he was going to be fine.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned hotel far away and son was being beaten by his father who told him it was his fault for letting those kids go. The son knew it wasn't his fault and he ran from the building as fast as he could, running away from the only person he ever cared about.

* * *

_Forgetting  
All the hurt inside  
You've learned to hide so well  
Pretending  
Someone else can come and save me from myself  
I can't be who you are_

_~Leave Out All The Rest by Linkin Park_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

Now I wonder who the penguin in Private's dream could be…I just had to reference the actual show at some point.

I don't own the Gibbs Quote, I just thought that the reference would be funny to put there.

The last chapter of Red Dawn will come out very soon next week because I have officially finished Year 11! I am now an awesome Year 12, which means my senior year for the American teens reading this.

I'm seeing New Moon tomorrow after Gymnastics. I can't wait!

See ya,

Lina Ben


	12. Chapter 12: We Cry

Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

This is the last chapter, folks! Don't worry though; Red Moon will be out in less than a few weeks.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" by Michael Bay.

I don't own Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane does. I don't own Phineas and Ferb.

I don't own "We Cry" by The Script.

Chapter 12: We Cry

* * *

_There comes a time when every bird has to fly  
At some point every rose has to die  
It's hard to let your children go  
Leave home  
Where they go?  
Who knows! _

_~We Cry by The Script_

* * *

It was 10:00 am by the time Private had finished packing his things and got his arm out of the sling. His shoulder was still bandaged and had to stay like that for the next week for the wound to heal. After signing discharge forms, everyone left the hospital at 10:10. A soft cool breeze had blown in from the ocean and it still had a slight hint of salty water. As the four agents excited the hospital, they all felt the breeze on their faces. Three of them sighed together in both relief for the clammy hospital air and that their friend was alive. The fourth just sighed in relief that he wasn't going to be tortured anymore. The fresh breeze tickled and tousled Private's hair while Private just smiled in happiness. The other three looked at Private with similar serene smiles of their faces. The four agents then piled into the car and sped down the road coming to a stop 10 minutes later at Zoolander Heights.

The four agents walked into their apartment with a surprised look on their face. There in their living room sat Major Charlie Swimmer, Private's father, along with Peter and Perry. They all snapped to attention out of habit, and nearly jumped when the Major laughed.

"At ease, boys." The Major nodded to the four agents. Private was getting close to hyperventilating; his father hadn't talked to him in ages. The four agents then relaxed and sat down on the sofa that faced the Major.

"Now Elite Penguin Force, I would like to talk about Friday night, if that is possible." The man asked the agents as if they had a choice in the matter, but his eyes were set hard. Easily, the four teens re-counted the events of Friday night. Private told his father hastily about the torture and the fact he was kidnapped by Dr. Blowhole's son. The Major didn't say a word until the agents had finished speaking. After the four friends told their tale, the leader of the Force regarded them each with cool eyes until they rested on Private.

"Private, why didn't you remember the credo?" Was the first thing that the leader of the Force had asked when the four agents had finished. "Never walk alone." was the Force's credo, which meant that it was its motto or saying.

"I-I uh…" Private had stuttered over his words, not sure how to reply to that question.

'_How am I going to get out of this?'_ Private thought desperately as everyone in the room stared at him, waiting for the teen's answer. Finally coming up with the right words, Private spilled his secret.

"Well, because I drew my friends a picture on Friday and I wanted to frame it and surprise them." Private answered quietly, but for a split second he saw Skipper's hard stare soften with surprised affection for his smallest agent. The Major nodded, his eyes narrowing in thought. Peter could barely contain his smile and even Perry seemed to brighten. After the Major asked more questions and ended the conversation he and the two other agents left. It was 12:30 pm by the time the Major, Perry and Peter left that it was time for lunch. Everyone had sandwiches that Kowalski and Rico had made that morning. Private nibbled into his thoughtfully, deep in thought about his picture that he drew. After he finished his lunch, Private walked to his and Skipper's shared room and opened up his back pack. The frame had been smashed but Kowalski had removed all of the glass from the bag. His school stuff was still there, still in good condition along with his ipod. He slipped the picture of his friends out of the bag. It was splattered with dried up blood.

'_My blood…' _Private thought softly to himself as he traced the splotches with his fingertips.

A little later after lunch, the boys sat down to a movie. They watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Private loved it. It was just as good as when the team saw it on the holidays. After that they watched a few Family Guy episodes, which had everyone in laughter. It was about 3:30 pm by the time the four friends separated to different parts of the apartment. Rico and Kowalski went to their room to experiment and invent stuff together. Skipper made himself some coffee and went to do some paperwork for an upcoming case that would take them somewhere in Autumn Break. Private sat outside on the balcony, listening to his ipod and reading a good book. It was a gorgeous afternoon, the sun was warm against Private's cheeks and the air was cool around him. It was getting a lot colder now that winter was coming, but it was still warm. Private read his book happily, often glancing inside to look at Skipper. He was also trying to find out where Skipper was taking them for their next big case in Autumn Break.

That night, before dinner Private was in his and Skipper's room surfing the internet on his laptop. He was randomly searching words on Google, his thoughts wondering. Skipper was making dinner with Kowalski and Rico was playing a video game on the TV in the living room.

"Dinner's ready!" Skipper yelled from the kitchen, bringing Private back to reality. At dinner everyone was talking happily, cracking jokes or pestering Skipper about where they were going for Autumn Break. Finishing dinner, the team then sat down on the couches and chairs and watched some more Family Guy episodes. It was a relaxing bonding time for the team, and everyone was happy. Private's fingers brushed absentmindedly across the graze on his shoulder, thinking as the other three agents laughed and giggled to the TV show. Private then felt a hand where his other hand was and nearly jumped put of his skin. Skipper had placed his hand there, squeezing it gently while Rico leaned against Kowalski sleepily.

Re-treating back to their rooms at 10: 00 pm, the team got ready for bed. Kowalski pulled on his pyjamas with one hand, holding an open book in the other attempting to read it. Rico got changed into his pyjamas quickly and crawled under the cover to play on his Nintendo DSi. In Skipper and Private's shared room, Private was pulling on his pyjamas with one hand groaning in pain when the sleeve brushed his graze until Skipper came to help him. Skipper pulled the sleeves over Private's arms and buttoned up the shirt. Skipper quickly got changed and walked back over to help Private into his bed. While Private didn't really need help with that, he still liked the attention Skipper was giving him. Pulling the covers over Private's small lean body, the leader tucked Private in and gently brushed the side of his face. At this gesture, Private blushed but smiled whispering a soft 'goodnight' to his leader. After a while a warm heavenly darkness clouded Private's vision and the small teen snuggled deeply into it, letting sleep take him away.

_Opening his eyes, Private gazed around the place he was in. He was in a beautiful windy clearing in a forest. He was sitting on a rock, letting the sun warm his cheeks. Gazing to the sky, he realized it was twilight. There were clouds in the distance, stained pink from the earlier sunset. A single full moon was shining down on Private from above. It was such a beautiful scene that Private really didn't want to wake up. Nearby, a small white bunny hopped out of a small bush twitching its nose cutely. Its ears were floppy and looked soft to touch. Slowly the bunny hopped over to Private, twitching its nose even more opening its big eyes. Its eyes were the most beautiful colour of hazel that Private had ever seen. He couldn't look away from the small bunny._

_Suddenly the small bunny hopped again, right into Private's arms. Carefully pressing the bunny tighter to his chest, he sighed. The small white bunny had such soft fur and was extremely light. Quickly glancing down his body, Private saw that he was wearing a white button up shirt, jeans, and he had a gold bracelet on his wrist. The bunny in his arms made soft cooing noises, twitching its nose again. Private gently kneeled down, letting to bunny out of his arms for a second while he laid down on the lush green grass. Nearby, Private heard rushing water. Getting back up again, Private walked across the clearing. He spotted a small creek at the end of the clearing. Reaching the creek he saw that it wasn't water rushing by, but memories. Closing his eyes for one moment, he thought about his capture and torture. Opening them again, he saw an empty bowl beside him. Slowly, he put his hand over the bowl and a dark tinted liquid flowed from his hand pouring into the bowl. Glancing into the bowl, Private didn't see the dark tinted liquid as before but the memories of his capture and torture._

_Realizing what he had to do; Private gently poured the liquid into the flowing creek, washing the memories away. Suddenly, darkness fell across the creek and clearing. Privates eyes flickered shut and saw the darkness again._

Private's eyes flickered open, noticing that it was getting lighter outside. Checking his watch, Private saw that it was 6:00 am and it was time for the sun to rise. Quickly getting out of his bed, Private sped out of the room and into the kitchen and finally onto the balcony. The sky was lighting up in a beautiful pre-dawn glow that made the stars that were still out twinkle more. Private heard the door behind him open again, and didn't realize his leader was there until Private heard him speak.

"Nice morning, huh?" Skipper stated, but it sounded more like a question. Private merely nodded as Skipper walked over to stand beside Private.

"Look, Private, I'm really sorry. About everything." Skipper finally burst out, his dark sapphire blue eyes wide but sincere. Private knew that his leader was saying sorry for many things, including the fight they had before school had started. Private stared at him for a few seconds, before breaking into a smile and nodding.

"Thank you, but you didn't know what Perry had done to me." Private answered after a few minutes, his eyes gazing at the horizon where the sun was starting to rise.

"It's all water under the bridge now anyway." Private smiled to his leader, while Skipper just nodded. The sun had risen halfway now, its yellow glow lighting up the early morning sky.

"It's always the darkest before dawn…" Skipper whispered, remembering the quote his father had told him when he was younger. Private nodded repeating the quote quietly to himself, his eyes gazing at the golden sun that had risen fully. The golden sun shone brightly as Skipper placed his hand over Private's and squeezed it gently. They were both happily looking towards a brighter future.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen Kowalski was reading his new science magazine. Rico was starting to make breakfast, every so often gazing a Kowalski with a curious expression. Kowalski then suddenly started to jump up and down like an excited school boy.

"Guess what, Rico!" Kowalski yelled excitedly to his friend, jumping on Rico's back.

"What?" Rico grunted, trying to pry Kowalski off his shoulders. Kowalski clung to Rico even more tightly as the muscly teen tried to pry him off.

"There is a lunar eclipse coming! It's going to be a full moon that night so we will get to see the moon turn red! How exciting is that?" Kowalski yelled again, and falling as Rico had finally managed to pry his friends off his shoulders.

Rico merely grunted again as he got out the bread and the toaster from the cupboard. Kowalski was going to be that death of him, and Rico knew it.

* * *

_I'm sick of looking for those heroes in the sky  
To teach us how to fly  
Together we cry!  
Together we cry  
Together we cry_

_~We Cry by The Script_

* * *

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

This is the last chapter of Red Dawn, but Red Moon will be coming out soon.

I just had to add the bit with Kowalski and Rico at the end, because it's kinda a preview for Red Moon.

I'm sorry if the chapter is a bit short than usual.

I'll start working on my plot for Red Moon today, and I should get the first chapter started by next week. I won't be here at the end of next week though; I'll be on my Cadets camp. I'm going surfing, abseiling, caving and hiking. I can't wait!

See ya,

Lina Ben _  
_


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